Our last RV trip was a year ago, and took us from California to Manitoba, then down to Indiana, and from there, using I80, we drove home. Along the way we, unknowingly at the time, drove through the religious Menninite, Amish, and into the Seven Amana Colonies area. This post highlights what I learned about these groups, and their food.
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Religious Freedom Enticed Europeans to Emigrate
As the USA formed, it attracted a number of religious communities from Europe who packed up and shipped over to this “new” land with hopes of living as they saw fit. For good or bad, what attracted these communities were the ideas of complete freedom to build their own communities, to be free from, what they termed, “religious persecution”, and to set up their own fiefdom.
- But of course I need to put in a clause here, because many Europeans immigrants initially came to this land with the idea it was free for the taking, even though it was already fully occupied.
- And some of the communities were in fact accommodated in their European homes, but wanted even more “freedom” to act exactly as they wanted, without having to meet the societies laws or socially agreed restrictions.
Reviewing their history, many of these communities quickly turned into exactly what they fled. That is, the Pilgrims desecrated Indigenous peoples sacred places including graveyards, then the Puritans harassed and jailed the Quakers. They had changed from the oppressed, into the oppressor they professed to have had originally fled. This is a common story of religious sects to this day.
Here is some of the many religious sects that fled to this land.
- Pilgrims (1620): These were a small number of people who fled the Church of England, wanting to separate themselves completely from the church that could dictate their style of worship.
- Puritans (arrived 1629-1640): These were also members of the Church of England, but wanted to reform the Church from within. After arrival in the Americas they quickly seemed to have had conflicts with Pilgrims, and the Indigenous peoples.
- Quakers (in 1656): Again it was English persecution they claimed to be leaving, and the desire to worship as they believed, that led them to the Americas.
- Mennonites (1663): They emigrated to the Americas to “preserve” their faith, seek economic opportunity, and especially to escape European militarism. They were primarily from Germanic countries.
- Amish (1717): These Germanic people too, came to escape what they called “religious persecution,” caused by their anabaptist views.
- Then came various Germanic Protestant groups, followed by immigration by country (Italians, Irish, etc)
- Amana Colonies (1852): These people came from Germanic areas as well, after they had broken away from and again spoke of being “persecuted” by the Luthern Church.
What We Visited
They Have Shared Histories
The Amish and Mennonites clearly share a common history. Both groups are descended from the Swiss-initiated Anabaptist movement of the 16th century. This movement was born as a reaction against the Catholic practice of baptizing infants. The Anabaptists rejected this practice, and instead held adult baptism of those (18 and older) who had consciously decided to join the religion.
But the two split apart in the 17th century. A small group (eventually called Amish) broke away from the Mennonite movement. This smaller group were more conservative; including a stricter interpretation of the Bible, shunning the bigger world, and strongly emphasised traditional gender roles.
They shared being persecuted during the Reformation in Europe, a Germanic origin, advocated segregating gender roles, and shared immigrating to the USA; the three religious groups I highlight today are not similar. Also, these three groups do not appear to me to have a cuisine of their own. There are lots of food influences, but they reflect their origin, and are mainly Germanic in nature.
The Religious Groups
Mennonites
Our RV Rally was in Manitoba, located in Mennonite territory. They are a group of Anabaptist Christian communities, tracing their roots to the European Radical Reformation.
- The name Mennonites is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, located in present day Netherlands.
- But they were officially formed in Switzerland in 1693.
- Mennonites believe that salvation comes through living a life of simplicity, humility, and service to others.
What differs Mennonites from Amish, is that the former can use cars, while the latter are horse and buggy; and Mennonites can also use electricity and phones. Other than differences in these outward use of modern technology, both of these communities share similar religious and gender beliefs.
Amish
From various sources it is noted that the Amish trace their roots to the Anabaptist movement in 1525 Switzerland. It became formally another Anabaptist Christian denomination in 1693.
The Amish were part of this Anabaptists movement until 1693, at that time they formed their own group in Switzerland and the Alsatian region of present-day France. Their first leader was Jakob Ammann; hence, they became known as Amish.
They experienced horrific pushback, with some reports of nearly 2,500 Anabaptists burned at the stake, drowned in rivers, starved in prisons, or lost their heads to the executioner’s sword.
The Amish migrated from Europe to North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and settled in as many as 32 states in the USA, and it is estimated that today two-thirds are located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. There are some 400k Amish reportedly living in the USA. We saw them in Indiana as that was part of our trip.
- Amish emphasize simplicity, humility, and living away from modern conveniences such as cars, electricity, and telephones.
- The Amish are colluquelly known as farmers and carpenters (or craftspeople). But for girls and women it is cooking fresh farm-grown foods, canning and sewing; along with babies and other “womanly chores”.
- They also believe they have dominion over animals who are, apparently, harshly worked. There are numerous reports that they work their plow-horses until they are broken and lame, then auction them off for meat. See various horse sanctuaries videos on YouTube, describing these Amish Horses and their plight.
- And it must be said, although we do not know how many, the Amish run puppy mills as a source of income, with support from the federal government.
It has been written that 300+ years ago, the Amish community fled European religious persecution, and, embraced William Penn’s promise that Pennsylvania offered religious freedom. Lancaster County is the oldest, and may be the largest Amish community with over 31k Amish people living in the county.
Food, like most societies, plays a reportedly big part of the Amish life, as the families gather around the eating table filled with hearty, and familiar foods. Their foods seems to keep with their Swiss-German heritage, that is, traditional fare of bread, pies, potatoes, and noodles.
As farmers of plants and animals, it is not unusual to see canned meats. In fact they preserve many foods: apple butter, fruits, veggies, pickles, relish, and sauerkraut.
I have read that the Amish have a general love of carbs, and are good bakers. A sample of a usual meal is reportedly tasty roasted chicken, creamy mashed potatoes & gravy, seasoned vegetables, fresh bread, and homemade jam.
Dishes that are often made include: butter noodles, Shoofly pies, Dutch cabbage rolls, pickled beets, pot pies, Lebanon bologna, apple butter, Amish friendship bread, etc. But others are clear to note there are no dietary restrictions, so running into Amish at a fast food joint should not surprise. However, there does seem to be a discouragement for consuming hard liquor.
Amana Colonies
We traveled through Iowa and noticed the signs for visiting the Amana Colonies. I had not heard of this, but my spouse had, so we decided to stop and look at the Homestead colony.
The Amana Colonies has a 310+ year history starting in the 1700s during the emergence of the Protestant Movement in Europe. The people who felt a certain ways about what a “godly life” consisted of, gathered in small groups across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. They were organized and eventually were confronted for believing in free speech, and for questioning the lack of freedom of religious practice and worship.
To escape the fines and other types of harassment, they moved around Germany. Until finally, in 1842 some community members moved to the USA, New York specifically (or aka the land occupied by the Seneca peoples).
- Writings at the time indicate the Amana did deal with both real estate agents and the Seneca Chief directly to work out land purchasing.
- Because of this direct trading for land, the Amana and Seneca seemed to have worked out a good enough relationship to have had no violence between them.
Then, as the population grew, the need for more property became evident, and in 1855 they built their first community in Iowa. By 1880 they were recognized as the largest communal society in the USA. Eventually owning ~26k acres and building six communities.
Unlike the Mennonites and Amish, the Amana were communal oriented. Their meals were prepared in community kitchens, prepared by the women. (In fact, I read that the individual houses did not contain kitchens.) Reportedly they had 50+ communal kitchens in the seven villages, feeding over 1500 members and visitors.
- CarolKubota: The women were in charge of the cooking. Each day a different family, the wife and her daughters, would cook the meals of the day. People ate five times a day. Three main meals and two snacks. Everyone had ten minutes to eat and move out of the kitchen for the next group of people to come in. Most of the meals included soup, bread, and some cheese. Only small pieces of meat were eaten.
Each of these villages had their own meat and smokehouse shop, ice house, bakery, winery, apiary, large house gardens and farms, including orchards. These shops and agricultural facilities were used to provide for all.
In 1932, they abandoned the communal practice, but maintained their religious beliefs and community. What they did was to incorporate as the Amana Society, and yet continued their self-sufficiency and religious practice.
The German aspect of their founding is clear through their food. I ordered a pork Schnitzel lunch, while my spouse ordered a chicken schnitzel. Our main plate had the Jägerschnitzel along with some Spätzle.
- Schnitzel: A pounded pork, chicken, or turkey that is seasoned and then dipped in flour, whisked egg, and bread crumbs. Then fried in butter until cooked and crispy. Served with lemon.
- Spätzle: This is a homemade batch of egg noodles made from a batter of eggs, flour, milk, and butter. The batter is dripped through a Spätzle press into salted boiling water. Then removed as they are cooked.
This meal came with a whole host of side dishes, some of which were German.
- Red pickled beets (German)
- Warm Sauerkraut (German)
- Coleslaw
- Cottage curd cheese with chives
- Mashed potatoes and gravy
- Corn
- White bread and strawberry jam
I have to admit, the history of these people is contained in a variety of books, pamphlets, and documentaries. Of course I can only brush the surface here, but the food is definitely Germanic in origin and has kept the basic recipes true to form.
Conclusion
The trip to the central part of the USA was amazing, and the people were generally nice and very friendly, although some townspeople were a bit standoffish. While it is easy to speak highly of these groups of people, I tend to be interested more in their real history, the one not written from their perspective.
The lands we saw were mainly farms, with food growing everywhere. We did not see as many farm animals as I expected, so I guess they are kept elsewhere.
What I did not know from the beginning was how religious history may have played a part in the current conservative aspect of these states. What I expected and received were the similarity of the food and how Germanic it was nearly everywhere.
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Amana: Information came from brochures and newsletters the Amana Society provides to visitors, and from talking with the various sales people we interacted with while there.
