Something I’ve noticed over the years is that when homesteaders get stuck on a problem, sooner or later somebody starts looking at how the Amish do it.

And it’s easy to see why. 

Amish families that have farmed the same ground for generations, most of them with no power on their farm, are still growing some of the best produce in the country. Just look how popular they are at the farmers’ market. 

There are something like 100 Amish and Plain-community produce auctions running across America right now, and many of the greenhouses feeding them run on lumber, water, sunlight, and manure.

Not much else.

So I started paying attention. Then I started copying a few things at home. This is how I actually managed to double my harvest last year. 

Here are seven Amish greenhouse ideas worth stealing. Most are cheap, simple, and things you can actually do this season.

Lean The Greenhouse Against a Wall You Already Have

One of the most interesting things about Amish greenhouses is where they’re built.

They’re usually not sitting alone in the middle of a field. Instead, they’re tucked against the south side of a barn, shed, or house.

Right away, you’ve saved one whole wall. That’s less lumber, less plastic, and less work.

But this idea does more than save you some materials. The southern walls sit in the sun all day, warm up, then give this heat back during the night. It’s basically free nighttime heat from a building you already own.

When my husband and I put ours up, we ran it along the south side of the equipment shed. I was mostly thinking about saving money on boards. But in the end it also kept the temperature steady when it started to get cold outside. 

Our old freestanding greenhouse warmed up fast and dropped hard at night. This one doesn’t swing nearly as much.

Just make sure the spot faces south and isn’t shaded by noon. A big tree or another building can ruin a good greenhouse spot pretty quickly.

Keep Your Seedlings Warm With a Manure Hotbed

Tomato and pepper seeds don’t do much until the soil gets up around 70 to 75°F. Most people solve that with heat mats.

The problem is that those mats can cost $30 to $100 each! 

If you’re starting a bunch of trays, you may need several, and then you’re paying to run them all spring.

Fresh horse manure can do the same job for free.

When manure and straw bedding break down together, they make real heat. Penn State Extension tested a hotbed inside an unheated greenhouse when it was 23°F outside, and the inside of that hot box stayed well above freezing.

Here’s how to set one up:

Make the box. Dig a trench or build a raised box inside the greenhouse, right under where your trays will sit.

Fill it with fresh manure. Horse manure mixed with straw bedding is best. It needs to be fresh. Old manure has already done most of its heating.

Pack it and water it. Tamp it down every six inches or so and soak it well. Packing it helps it heat steadily and last longer.

Cover it with soil. Put about six inches of finished compost or good soil over the manure. Fresh manure gives off ammonia, so you don’t want seedlings sitting right on top of it.

Wait a few days. Let that first hot surge settle down before putting your trays on top.

Now, it’s easy to see why the Amish love this method so much: they have horses.

Most of us don’t. And if you don’t have fresh manure sitting around, or don’t want to spend money on heat mats, the next best thing is to use heat you’re already paying for: the heat inside your house.

A small indoor greenhouse doesn’t take up much room. You can fit one in a spare corner, a closet with a grow light, or even the kitchen. I actually like the kitchen idea because you’re cooking there every day and making heat anyway.

Your seedlings stay warmer, you can keep a closer eye on them, and you can get a head start on the garden without adding much to your electric bill.

Here you can find a guide on how to build a small indoor greenhouse for your seedlings →

Put Low Hoops Over Your Beds

Trying to heat an entire greenhouse in February is a good way to watch your money disappear.

A simpler answer is to protect the plants instead of heating all that empty air.

Bend wire or thin PVC into low hoops over your beds, then cover them with frost cloth at night. Now the greenhouse is your first layer, and the cloth is your second.

It can buy you several degrees on a cold night, and a basic setup may cost around $20 in cloth.

You’ll see the same idea in little cold frames around Amish gardens. Scrap wood, plastic, straw, whatever they have. Nothing fancy. The point is to trap some of the heat coming out of the ground and keep the cold air off the plants.

Stick with crops that can handle cool weather. Spinach, kale, mache, carrots, leeks and collards are all good choices.

The only annoying part with low hoops is pulling the cover off every time you need to weed, water, or pick something.

There’s a better way to build them. You can attach the hoops right to the raised bed and put the whole cover on hinges, so it lifts up like a lid and stays out of your way while you work.

It also gives you a more permanent setup you can use again and again when frost or bad weather shows up.

Here’s how to build the Amish-style version from scrap materials →

Line the North Wall With Black Barrels

Water holds heat really well, and you don’t need electricity to make it work.

Put 55-gallon drums along the north wall of the greenhouse, paint them flat black, and fill them with water. During the day, they soak up heat. At night, they slowly let it back out.

They won’t make the greenhouse warm, but they can raise the low temperature a few degrees and help smooth out those big day-to-night swings.

I put four barrels in ours three springs ago. I found used food-grade barrels for ten dollars each from a fellow down the road and painted them with a quart of black paint I already had in the shop.

Also, those barrels don’t have to sit there doing just one job.

If you’re already using them to hold heat, you can run the greenhouse gutter into them and use the same barrels to catch rainwater. Now they help steady the temperature at night and give you water for the plants later.

I like this 3-barrel setup because it shows a simple way to connect several barrels together, so you can store a lot more of the water coming off that roof.

See how the 3-barrel rainwater system is put together →

That’s how I decided to run the greenhouse gutter into my barrels. 

That turned out to be one of my favorite parts. The same barrels that hold heat also store water, so I’m not hauling nearly as many buckets. And the water is already warmer when I use it.

Some Amish growers do something similar with the floor. They’ll use crushed limestone or gravel instead of boards. The rock heats up during the day, hangs onto some of that warmth at night, and helps keep weeds down too.

Add a Vent That Opens Itself

This is one small thing I’ve spent money on when I built my greenhouse. 

A greenhouse on a sunny April day can cook what’s inside in about two hours. If you’re not home or you simply forget to open the vent, you can come back to a flat of dead tomato starts.

An automatic vent opener fixes that without using electricity.

It’s a metal cylinder filled with wax that mounts to the vent window. As the greenhouse warms up, the wax expands and pushes the vent open. When it cools, the wax contracts and a spring closes it.

No batteries. No wires. No thermostat.

Most start opening somewhere between 63 and 77°F, and you can adjust them. They usually cost about $45 to $60, and the cylinder can be replaced when it eventually wears out.

For an off-grid greenhouse, that’s pretty hard to beat.

Grow Your Own Transplants

Amish greenhouses aren’t just hobby buildings. A lot of them are family businesses.

Drive through Lancaster County in May, or through Amish areas in western New York and Wisconsin, and you’ll see greenhouses selling bedding plants, hanging baskets, vegetable starts, and seed potatoes.

You can use the same idea on a smaller scale.

A flat of tomato starts at the garden center can cost $20 or more. If you grow your own, you can replace $200 to $400 worth of nursery plants with a $4 bag of seed-starting mix and some seeds.

That adds up fast if you plant a big garden.

A lot of Amish growers also save seed from what they grew the year before instead of buying new seed every spring.

Some of those seeds go back a lot further than most people realize.

Amish families have kept certain heirloom varieties going for more than 50 years, passing the seed from one generation to the next. Even varieties like the old Amish Paste tomato are still being grown this way.

And that’s only part of how they avoid buying the same things over and over every year.

See what the Amish still save and grow for themselves →

Make Your Plastic Last

The plastic skin is one of the highest costs on a hoop house, so it’s worth taking care of.

Good greenhouse film is 6 mil and UV-rated. If you treat it right, it can last for years. The clear plastic sheeting from the hardware store can be a different story. Sun and wind can destroy it in a single summer. 

So I advise you to buy the right stuff once instead of buying the wrong stuff four times.

Then protect it.

Pad every contact point. Cover screw heads, bolt ends, and sharp edges where the plastic touches the frame. That’s where little tears usually start.

Stretch it on a warm day. Warm plastic pulls tight and stays tighter. Put it on cold and it can loosen, flap in the wind, and wear itself out.

Wash it. Dust and algae block light. A rinse once or twice a year costs almost nothing.

Keep the old sheet. When you replace the outer plastic, save whatever is still usable. It can become an inner liner or a cover for low tunnels.

Also, check the edges after a hard wind. A little tear is easy to fix with greenhouse tape. 

Final Thoughts

None of this is secret knowledge. The Amish didn’t invent hotbeds, water barrels, low hoops, or lean-to greenhouses.

They just kept using simple things that work because they are mostly off-grid. 

That’s what I like about these ideas.

You don’t need an expensive greenhouse to get an earlier start. You need good sun, something that can hold heat, and a few smart ways to protect the plants when the temperature drops.

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The post 7 Amish Greenhouse Hacks That Will Save You Money first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

The Amish farms in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, have been worked for generations, and they still sit on some of the most productive non-irrigated soil in the whole country. That didn’t happen by accident.

For a long time, a lot of those farms fed the soil with what the farm already made. Nutrients kept cycling around the place instead of getting bought in by the bag, and the soil stayed rich exactly because of this. 

What I like about this approach is that you can copy that same loop on a much smaller scale. You don’t need eighty acres or a team of horses to do it. So, here are seven soil boosters you can make at home for little or nothing, and how to use each one without causing yourself a problem.

Composted Manure for Steady Fertility

Manure is the backbone of the whole thing. Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and a good load of organic matter, all in one material. It’s free if you keep animals, and often free if you know somebody with horses who’s glad to have you haul it off.

The easiest way to use it well is fall application. Spread it after the harvest is done, work it into the beds, and let the winter go by before anything grows there. By spring it’s broken down and settled, and it’s ready to feed your plants. That fall-and-winter rhythm is how those Lancaster farms keep their ground in shape year after year, and it works just the same on a single backyard bed.

Composting it first is even better. A hot pile that reaches 140 degrees gives you something safe and mellow to work with, and that’s the form I’d reach for around a vegetable garden.

One thing to keep in mind so you use it safely. Raw manure needs time in the ground before you harvest, so put it down at least 120 days before you pick anything that touches the soil, and 90 days for crops that grow up off the ground. This is why it’s recommended to start this in the fall. 

The University of Maine Extension lays these numbers out, and they match the USDA organic standard. Also, skip cat, dog, and pig manure altogether. Handle it with a little care and it’s the best free fertilizer you’ll ever get your hands on.

If you’re curious about how the Amish prepare the manure they use in their farms, you can get this answer straight from an ex-Amish.

Eddie Swartzentruber grew up in one of the strictest communities in Ohio, and after he left the community, he took with him many of the secrets.

Now, he wants to share them with the rest of the world and help people become better homesteaders. Most of the Amish practices fit perfectly with the concepts of self-sufficiency and off-the-grid, and this is why I think knowing how to use them in your garden will mean a lot to you. For me, what I learned from the Amish changed the way I garden for the better.

So, if you want to see how to make manure and garden like the Amish, you can find all you need in The Amish Ways Academy. This is an online course presented by Eddie himself where he shows you everything he knows. After you finish it, you also get a diploma with your name on it.

Click on the video below and see all you need to know about the academy. Also, if you decide to enroll now, you get an 83%  discount + 4 FREE gifts! 

Also, once you get the course, it’s yours for life. You can access it anytime you want as often as you please.

Wood Ash for Potassium and pH

This one comes free out of the wood stove. In a home that heats and cooks with wood, the way a lot of Amish households still do, ash is just something you always have a bucket of. Wood ash raises soil pH and brings potassium, plus a good bit of calcium

But here’s the catch. Ash is only useful if your soil is more acidic than it needs to be. Test it first. If you spread ash on ground that’s already neutral or sweet, you push the pH too high, and then your plants can’t take up the nutrients sitting right there in the dirt.

A couple of places to keep ash away from:

• Potatoes – Higher pH is exactly what encourages potato scab, so keep it out of the potato patch.
• Blueberries and other acid lovers – Blueberries want acidic soil, and so do azaleas and rhododendrons. Ash works against them.

Use hardwood ash when you can, such as oak or maple, since it contains more nutrients than softwood. And use clean wood ash only. Never use ash from treated lumber, painted wood, or charcoal briquettes, because that can carry chemicals you don’t want near your food.

Leaf Mold for Better Soil Structure

Every fall you get a pile of leaves for free, and it’s easy to rake them to the curb and forget about them. You can turn that pile into some of the best soil conditioner there is.

Leaf mold is just leaves that have broken down on their own. Pile them up, keep them damp, and let them sit. In about a year, you’ve got a dark, crumbly material that does wonderful things for the soil.

But keep in mind that leaf mold conditions the soil. It does not feed it, and the NPK nutrients in it are low. What it does is open up heavy clay so water and roots can move through, and it helps sandy soil hold moisture instead of letting everything drain straight out.

If a year feels like a long wait, grass clippings break down much faster and add a little nitrogen too. Use clippings from a lawn you haven’t sprayed, and lay them in thin layers so they don’t mat into a slimy mess.

Comfrey and Weed Tea for a Quick Feed

Here’s a booster that runs on the weeds you’re already pulling. Fill a bucket with pulled weeds or chopped leaves, cover it with water, and set a lid on loosely. Let it sit a couple of weeks. It’ll turn dark and smell rank, and that’s normal. Strain it, water it down to about the color of weak tea, and pour it around the base of your plants. This is how you make tea for your garden! 

For the strongest version, grow comfrey. I keep a couple of comfrey plants down by the back fence just for this, and I cut them back three or four times a season. Comfrey leaves test high in potassium, higher than most of what you’d pull out of the garden, which makes the tea a great feed for tomatoes and peppers and anything setting fruit.

One honest note: comfrey isn’t quite free to start. You buy a root cutting or two, usually a couple of dollars each, and after that the one planting keeps handing you leaves for years. Plant the sterile Bocking 14 kind, so it stays put instead of spreading all over.

Do not make this tea out of manure. Manure tea carries the same risk as raw manure and follows the same timing rules. Weed and comfrey tea are the ones you want here. You can see how to properly make this tea here. 

And since I got comfrey in my garden, I use it for so much more than making this fertilizer tea for my plants. This herb has been long known for its incredible healing properties.

Allantoin is the main active chemical compound in comfrey and it stimulates new cell growth and skin regeneration. This is why I like to use comfrey to also make a healing salve I use when I get minor cuts and bruises.

What I love about it is that it’s free and I know all the ingredients. Since I make it, this salve is 100% organic, made with the best ingredients possible.

If you’re thinking about making your own comfrey salve, you can find the full recipe here. 

Burnt Bone Meal for Phosphorus and Calcium

Nothing on an old Amish farm gets thrown out if it can go back to work, and bones are a good example. If you butcher your own animals, you’ve got a phosphorus and calcium source right there in the scrap bucket.

After we butcher in the fall, I save the bones, and once they’ve dried out, I bake them low and slow until they go brittle enough to snap. Then I crush them into a coarse meal and work that into the beds. Bones are mostly calcium phosphate, and phosphorus is the nutrient behind strong roots and good flowering and fruiting, so it earns its keep.

And while we’re on calcium, let me save you a mistake. Crushed eggshells don’t do much for calcium in any hurry. They break down over years, so tossing them in the bed and expecting them to stop blossom-end rot this summer just won’t work. Burnt bone meal is the better bet if you want more calcium for your garden. 

A Legume Rotation for Nitrogen

This is “the nitrogen engine” of the whole system, and it’s the piece those Lancaster farms rely on the most. A lot of them keep a cover crop like clover or rye growing over the winter and turn it into the ground come spring.

Here’s how it works. Certain plants, the legumes, team up with bacteria on their roots to pull nitrogen out of the air and fix it into the soil. Clover and alfalfa do it, and so do vetch and field peas. You grow them, and they leave the ground richer in nitrogen than they found it.

So, if you want to try this in your garden, you need to start rotating. Plant a heavy feeder like corn in a bed one year, then put a legume in that same bed the next year to give the nitrogen back. Over time, the beds feed each other instead of draining down to nothing.

Click here to get a full Amish-style crop rotation plan for your garden. 

This plan presents everything in detail, from what plants to choose to what Amish fertilizer to use in your garden. I think it comes in handy to any gardener or homesteader who wants to make their harvest boom. That’s why I advise you to check it out.

Crushed Charcoal for Water and Good Microbes

If you’re already burning wood, you’ve got charcoal, and crushed into the soil, it holds water and gives microbes a place to live. All those tiny pores are perfect for the good bacteria and fungi, and they hold moisture through a dry spell.

Now, I want you to pay attention to this. Don’t dump raw charcoal straight into your beds. Fresh charcoal pulls nitrogen out of the soil for a while as it settles, and that leaves your plants hungry. 

But the fix is easy. Mix the crushed charcoal into your compost or manure pile first and let it sit for a few weeks. It soaks up nutrients and microbes in there, and by the time you spread it, it feeds your soil instead of robbing it.

Get All the Knowlege Form a Single Place

If you’re interested in how the Amish grow their crops and you want to use the same tricks as them, you’re in the perfect place! Imagine how it would be to have access to an Amish gardening encyclopedia?

Well, this thing already exists, and it’s called The Amish Ways. 

This book is written by the same Eddie Swartzentruber I mentioned above and it offers you the basics of Amish farming. In this book, you can learn more about how Amish use companion planting, how they make natural pesticides, or how they use animals to help them get a better harvest. There are lots of surprising practices the Amish use that we have no idea about and you can find all of them in this book. For example, did you know about the Amish underground garden? Or did you know the Amish found a way of growing potatoes in thin air?

You can find all of these + many other revolutionary projects in The Amish Way book. And the best part? You get the full step-by-step instructions for each project so you can build any project you want in your garden right away.

👉 Click here and get your own copy of The Amish Ways before the stock runs out again 

Final Thoughts

None of these methods is complicated, and none of it is some lost secret. It’s the same old habit those Lancaster farms have run on for two hundred years, feeding the soil from what the place already makes and all you have to do is scale it down for your own backyard.

Also, there’s no need to use all of them to make sure your garden is productive. You need to choose only what fits your soil. Trying to apply all seven would be a nightmare and also counterproductive. 

As you can see, for now, I only use the comfrey hack and the bone meal one. I am thinking about trying rotations in the future. 

Are you using any of these Amish methods on your homestead? Tell me in the comments section below.

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The post 7 Natural Amish Soil Boosters You Can Make for Free first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

When it comes to self-sufficiency in America, two communities stand above the rest: the Amish and the Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons. Both have built cultures around independence from outside systems, with deep traditions of food production, preservation, community cooperation, and practical skills that most of the modern world has completely forgotten. Both have survived economic downturns, social upheaval, and disruption that devastated less-prepared neighbors.

But their approaches could hardly be more different. The Amish achieve self-sufficiency through deliberate technological restraint, keeping modern systems at arm’s length and building deep community bonds within tight-knit settlements. The Latter-day Saints pursue self-sufficiency through systematic preparation within modern life, using contemporary tools and infrastructure to build robust household reserves and individual skill sets.

For homesteaders, preppers, and self-reliance practitioners, studying both communities is one of the most efficient ways to upgrade your own preparedness philosophy. You do not need to share either group’s religious beliefs to benefit enormously from what they have built. This article compares the two traditions across every dimension that matters to the self-sufficient homesteader: food storage, farming, community structure, practical skills, and the philosophical frameworks that sustain it all.

A note on terminology and respect: The term ‘Mormon’ is the commonly used informal name for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Both terms are used here interchangeably, as both are widely recognized. This article approaches both communities with respect. The self-sufficiency practices described here draw on publicly documented, widely shared information from both traditions and are presented for educational purposes.

At a Glance: How the Two Traditions Differ

Before going deep on each dimension, it helps to have a clear picture of how these two communities approach self-sufficiency at a high level.

On technology, the Amish deliberately limit what tools and systems they adopt, evaluating each through the lens of community and faith. The Latter-day Saints embrace modern technology fully, seeing it as a neutral resource in service of preparedness goals. On food storage, the Amish grow, preserve, and consume seasonally in a continuous agricultural cycle, while the LDS tradition emphasizes systematic long-term reserves with documented quantities and rotation systems. On community, the Amish organize around the Gmay, a tight geographic church district of 25 to 35 households with deep daily interdependence, while LDS members organize through a ward and stake system that spans modern suburban and urban geographies.

On the question of what drives the self-sufficiency, the motivations diverge sharply. Amish self-sufficiency flows from a theological worldview of separation from the world and communal yielding. LDS preparedness is framed explicitly as religious duty, with the church teaching that temporal readiness is a commandment. On skill transmission, the Amish pass skills through daily lived practice and apprenticeship from childhood, while the LDS tradition relies more heavily on formal programs, published curricula, and organized church training. Both approaches work, and both have produced communities that stand as models for anyone serious about resilience.

The Philosophical Roots of Self-Sufficiency in Each Tradition

Understanding why each community values self-sufficiency is essential to understanding how they practice it. The motivations are different, which produces different strengths and different blind spots.

Amish: Separation from the World

The Amish are an Anabaptist Christian tradition descended from 16th-century Swiss and German religious reformers. Their approach to self-sufficiency flows directly from the theological concept of Gelassenheit: a German word encompassing yielding, humility, submission to God and community, and separation from the corrupting influence of the world. Technology is not rejected on principle but evaluated through the lens of whether it strengthens or weakens community bonds and separation from worldly dependency.

This is why the Amish will use a tractor but keep its steel wheels to prevent it being used on roads. Why they will accept a telephone in a shared barn but not in the home. The goal is not primitivism; it is deliberate insulation from systems that create dependency and erode community. Self-sufficiency is not a preparedness strategy; it is the natural expression of a theological worldview that has been lived continuously for more than 300 years.

The Amish population in the United States has grown from approximately 8,000 in 1900 to more than 370,000 today, doubling roughly every 20 years. This is a community not in decline but in vigorous growth, suggesting its model is sustainable in ways that merit serious study.

Latter-day Saints: Preparedness as Commandment

The LDS Church has taught formal self-reliance and preparedness doctrine since the 19th century, rooted in the experiences of early church members who crossed the American plains under enormous hardship. The theological basis is explicit: members are taught that the body is a stewardship from God and that failure to prepare for temporal needs is a form of poor stewardship. The LDS Church’s official preparedness teachings frame self-reliance as one of the fundamental duties of a faithful member.

Unlike the Amish approach, LDS preparedness is explicitly forward-looking and system-oriented. The church has published detailed, practical guidance on food storage quantities, rotation systems, financial preparedness, and skill development that would be at home in any serious prepper library. Members are encouraged to build their preparedness incrementally within the context of normal modern life.

The LDS Church operates one of the largest private welfare systems in the United States, including bishop’s storehouses, humanitarian aid programs, and employment assistance centers. This infrastructure represents a mature, tested mutual aid network that has operated at scale for generations.

Food Storage: The Core Self-Sufficiency Practice

Food storage is where the practical differences between the two traditions are most visible and most instructive for homesteaders.

The Amish Approach: Cellar, Root Vegetables, and Fermentation

Amish food storage is inseparable from Amish food production. The system is not about buying products and stockpiling them; it is about growing, harvesting, preserving, and storing in a continuous seasonal cycle. A well-provisioned Amish household typically maintains a root cellar stocked with potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, cabbages, and winter squash from the summer and autumn harvest, alongside hundreds of quarts of home-canned vegetables, fruits, meats, and soups. Crocks of lacto-fermented vegetables, smoked and cured meats from autumn butchering, dried beans and grains, rendered lard and tallow, and quantities of apple butter and fruit preserves round out the stores.

What distinguishes Amish food storage from most modern preparedness approaches is that it is fully integrated into daily life. The canning does not happen on a special preparedness weekend; it happens every summer as a matter of course. The root cellar is not a backup; it is the pantry. The system is self-renewing because it is embedded in the agricultural cycle. Amish communities in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, are estimated to maintain enough food in storage to sustain their households for six months to a full year at any given time, simply as a byproduct of their normal food production practices.

The LDS Approach: Systematic, Documented, and Scalable

The LDS Church has published specific, detailed guidance on food storage that is freely available to anyone. The current standard recommendation is a three-month supply of foods your family normally eats, combined with a longer-term supply of staple foods sufficient for one year per person. Staples include wheat, rice, legumes, oats, sugar, salt, and powdered milk, with specific quantities, storage guidelines, and rotation systems all documented and distributed through church channels.

The LDS Church Home Storage Center system operates facilities across the United States where members can purchase bulk staple foods at cost and package them in sealed cans or mylar pouches with oxygen absorbers for long-term storage. These facilities are open to non-members in many locations. The church estimates that properly stored wheat sealed in nitrogen-flushed cans will remain nutritionally viable for 25 to 30 years.

The LDS food storage system is specifically designed for modern households that do not farm. It works in apartments, suburban homes, and urban environments. The emphasis is on shelf-stable, calorie-dense staples that require minimal infrastructure to store and can be integrated into normal cooking through a regular rotation system. Water storage is explicitly included in the framework, with one gallon per person per day as the standard recommendation for a minimum two-week supply. Financial reserves are treated as part of the same preparedness system, with members taught to maintain three to six months of living expenses in accessible savings.

Farming and Food Production

Amish Farming: Small-Scale, Intensive, and Animal-Powered

Amish farming practices vary significantly by district and region but share common features that distinguish them sharply from mainstream American agriculture. Most Amish farms are 50 to 150 acres, small by commercial standards, and intensively cultivated using draft horses or mules for primary field work. The combination of animal power, high crop diversity, and deeply ingrained traditional knowledge produces farms that are remarkably productive without the fossil fuel dependency of modern agriculture.

A comprehensive study by researchers at the Rodale Institute found that organic farming systems comparable to Amish practices maintain yields within 20 percent of conventional systems after a transition period, with dramatically lower input costs and significantly better soil health outcomes over time. The Amish figured this out through practice centuries before the research confirmed it.

Typical Amish farm production includes field crops such as corn, wheat, oats, and hay, alongside large kitchen gardens, orchards, dairy cattle, beef cattle, hogs, and poultry. The integration of livestock into the farming system provides manure fertility, closing the nutrient loop in a way that modern industrial farming has broken. Many communities also maintain specialty crops such as tobacco in some Pennsylvania districts or market vegetables in others, providing cash income that funds community needs while keeping the farm operation central.

LDS Approach: Home Gardens and Practical Food Skills

LDS preparedness teachings explicitly include home food production as part of the self-reliance system, though farming is not the cultural center of LDS life as it is for the Amish. The emphasis is on what is practical for the average member: a productive kitchen garden, fruit trees where space allows, and the food preservation skills to convert fresh produce into long-term storage.

The LDS Church has historically operated agricultural programs and continues to encourage home gardening through its welfare and self-reliance curriculum. Many LDS communities maintain group gardens and orchards that members tend collectively. The BYU-Idaho Center for Self-Reliance offers publicly accessible courses on food production, financial literacy, and practical homesteading skills that draw on generations of LDS preparedness tradition.

Practical Self-Sufficiency Skills: Side by Side

This is where both communities offer the most concrete lessons for homesteaders. Both have maintained practical skill traditions that the broader culture has largely abandoned.

Skills the Amish Excel At

The Amish skill base is broad, deep, and maintained through daily practice across generations. Draft horse management, including hitching, working, breeding, and caring for horses, is a living skill in Amish communities that has largely disappeared from mainstream farming. Traditional woodworking and furniture making allows many Amish communities to generate significant income from hand-crafted products produced with minimal power tool use. Quilting and textile skills maintain real garment construction and mending knowledge that few modern households retain.

Water-powered and hand-powered food processing tools including grain mills, butter churns, and apple presses are in active daily use rather than in museums. Traditional barn raising remains how barns get built, with dozens of community members contributing skilled labor in a single coordinated effort. Whole-animal butchering knowledge, from slaughter to finished cuts, sausage, lard, and cured meats, is transmitted across generations as a matter of course. Many Amish communities also maintain active knowledge of herbal remedies and traditional healing practices, often blended with practical modern medicine for serious conditions.

Skills the LDS Tradition Excels At

The LDS skill base is strongest in the organization and management dimensions of self-sufficiency. The LDS rotation and inventory system is the most practically refined food storage management approach of any major community in America. LDS preparedness culture includes specific training on cooking with stored staples and using camp stoves, dutch ovens, and solar ovens when grid power is unavailable. Because wheat berries are central to LDS food storage, many LDS households maintain active skill in grinding wheat, baking whole-grain bread, and cooking whole grains in ways most modern households have completely lost.

The LDS emphasis on financial self-reliance produces measurable outcomes: active LDS members carry significantly lower consumer debt levels than comparable demographic groups, a direct result of generations of formal teaching on debt avoidance and reserve building. The ward system creates a ready-made neighborhood mutual aid network with established leadership and communication systems that activates rapidly in disasters. LDS families who follow the storage program also develop genuine proficiency in pressure canning, water bath canning, and food dehydration across a broad range of foods.

What to Learn from Each Tradition by Skill Area

For homesteaders wanting to draw practical lessons from both traditions, here is how the two approaches compare across the skill areas that matter most.

• Food preservation: Learn fermentation, smoking, curing, and whole-animal processing from the Amish. Learn systematic canning rotation, long-term staple storage, oxygen absorbers, and mylar sealing from the LDS tradition.
• Food storage duration: The Amish excel at root cellar management, no-electricity storage, and eating seasonally from what you grew. The LDS tradition excels at 25-plus year staple storage using moisture and oxygen control systems.
• Farming: The Amish offer unmatched knowledge of draft animal use, soil stewardship, and mixed farming systems. The LDS tradition is more instructive on maximizing home garden productivity and small-space food production within a suburban context.
• Community resilience: The Amish barn-raising model and embedded daily mutual aid has no modern equivalent for depth. The LDS organized ward welfare, bishop’s storehouse, and ministering networks offer a more replicable structural model for dispersed modern communities.
• Financial resilience: The Amish minimal-debt culture, barter economy, and community financial pooling is difficult to replicate without the surrounding community. The LDS formal debt-avoidance teaching and three-to-six-month expense reserve recommendation is immediately actionable for any household.
• Water and energy independence: Amish spring-fed systems, wind pumps, gravity water, and no-grid operations represent deep off-grid operational knowledge. LDS preparedness addresses water storage protocols and 72-hour kit planning more systematically for modern households.
• Skill transmission: The Amish daily apprenticeship model, where children learn by doing from birth, is the gold standard for genuine skill retention. The LDS formal classes, published curricula, and church-organized training events are more accessible entry points for adults starting from scratch.

Community Structure and Mutual Aid

Both communities have built mutual aid systems that dwarf anything available to isolated modern households. This is perhaps the most important lesson for independent homesteaders.

The Amish Gmay

The foundational unit of Amish community life is the Gmay, or church district, typically comprising 25 to 35 households within a defined geographic area. The Gmay is simultaneously the worship community, the governance structure, the mutual aid network, and the social world of its members. When an Amish family faces a barn fire, a medical crisis, or a crop failure, the Gmay responds immediately with labor, materials, food, and financial assistance.

This is not charity in the modern sense; it is mutual obligation that flows in all directions. Every family contributes to every other family’s crises because they know the same support will be available to them. The system does not require bureaucracy, applications, or means testing. It requires only community membership and the trust built through shared daily life. Many Amish communities also maintain their own mutual aid insurance funds that cover fire, storm damage, and major medical costs, keeping money within the community and maintaining community accountability for risk.

The LDS Ward System

The LDS Church organizes its members geographically into wards (congregations of roughly 200 to 500 members) and stakes (groups of wards covering a region). Unlike the Amish Gmay, LDS wards encompass members spread across modern suburban or urban geographies, but the organizational system still creates meaningful mutual aid capacity. Ward members are assigned ministering brothers and sisters who maintain regular contact with assigned households, creating a welfare check network that operates continuously.

The LDS Bishop’s Storehouse system represents one of the most sophisticated private welfare infrastructures in the country. Members experiencing hardship can receive food, household goods, and financial assistance through their bishop without means testing or government involvement. The system is funded by member fast offerings and operates on a dignity-preserving model that treats recipients as temporary beneficiaries who will contribute again when able.

What Homesteaders Can Take From Both Traditions

You do not need to join either community or adopt either faith to implement the most valuable lessons from both. Here is what to take, practically.

From the Amish

• Integrate production and storage into daily life. The most powerful insight from the Amish is that their food security is not a preparedness project; it is simply how they live. Build your homestead so that self-sufficiency is the default, not the exception.
• Reduce energy dependency at the production level. Amish farms demonstrate that significant food production is possible with minimal fossil fuel input. A farm that relies on horse power or human labor is not vulnerable to fuel supply disruptions in the same way a tractor-dependent operation is.
• Build community before you need it. The Gmay works because the mutual aid relationships were built over years of daily shared life before any crisis. An isolated homesteader with a full pantry is still vulnerable to the crises that require community: a broken leg during harvest, a barn fire, a medical emergency.
• Ferment and cure as primary preservation methods. Lacto-fermentation and curing require no electricity and no canning equipment, and they produce foods with long shelf lives and enhanced nutritional profiles. Sauerkraut in a crock, cured pork in a cool cellar, and dried beans in a bin are achievable in almost any homestead context.
• Maintain animal-powered backup capability. Even if you do not farm primarily with draft animals, understanding how to use them is a meaningful resilience asset. Several Amish communities have been the only functioning agricultural operations in their regions following extended power outages.

From the Latter-day Saints

• Use the three-month rule as your starting point. Before you think about a year’s supply of anything, build a genuine three-month supply of foods your household actually eats and rotates regularly. This is achievable for almost any household in almost any living situation.
• Learn the oxygen absorber and mylar system for long-term grains. The LDS preparedness community has developed, tested, and documented food storage methods that achieve genuinely multi-decade shelf life for staple grains. This knowledge is publicly available and proven at scale. Sealed 5-gallon buckets of wheat, rice, and dried beans with oxygen absorbers represent some of the most calorie-dense, cost-effective long-term food storage available.
• Build financial reserves with the same seriousness as food reserves. A household with six months of living expenses in accessible savings can weather most of the crises that derail unprepared families. Treat your financial reserve as a preparedness line item, not an investment goal.
• Organize your community on the ward model. You do not need a church to create a ward-like structure in your neighborhood. Assign specific roles (who has medical training, who has a generator, who has the tractor), maintain regular contact with assigned households, and establish a communication protocol for emergencies.
• Develop your wheat-to-bread skill chain. Whole wheat berries stored in sealed containers provide substantial caloric density at low cost, but only if you know how to sprout, grind, and bake with them. Many households have wheat in storage and no idea how to use it. Close that gap before you need to.

Honest Limitations: What Neither Tradition Has Fully Solved

Presenting either community as a flawless model would be dishonest. Homesteaders should be aware of the real limitations of both approaches.

Amish Limitations

The Amish approach to healthcare is complex and variable by community. Some communities have strong relationships with modern medical providers; others rely heavily on traditional remedies and alternative practitioners to the detriment of members with serious conditions. Homesteaders emulating Amish self-sufficiency should maintain clear plans for accessing modern medical care rather than assuming traditional knowledge covers all scenarios.

The Amish system also works because it is embedded in a dense, geographically concentrated community with generations of shared practice. An isolated homesteader cannot simply replicate the Amish system without the community infrastructure that makes it function. And the community approval process for new technologies can be slow to adapt, which has in some communities delayed adoption of practices with significant food safety implications.

LDS Limitations

LDS food storage doctrine is excellent at creating reserves of shelf-stable food but does not always develop the underlying food production skills that would allow a household to replenish those stores after they are consumed. Many households have a year’s worth of wheat but no garden and no knowledge of how to grow wheat. The storage system without the production skills is a one-time supply, not a sustainable cycle.

The ward system is designed for a suburban, mobile population, and the geographic dispersion of members means that mutual aid often requires vehicle transportation. The ward model is less effective when infrastructure such as roads and fuel supply is disrupted. Like most preparedness systems designed for normal times, LDS food storage provides excellent short-to-medium-term resilience but was not specifically designed for the challenges of long-term off-grid survival.

The Synthesis: A Homesteader’s Integrated Approach

The most resilient homesteading approach draws on both traditions without being limited to either. The synthesis works in three layers.

• Layer 1, LDS-inspired: Build a systematic, well-organized, documented food storage system with a genuine three-month supply of normal foods and a growing long-term staple reserve. Use oxygen absorbers and proper sealing for long-term grains. Maintain three to six months of financial reserves. Know your numbers.
• Layer 2, Amish-inspired: Embed food production and preservation into your seasonal life. Grow a serious kitchen garden. Raise some livestock if space permits. Learn to ferment, cure, and dry. Build a root cellar or cold storage. Use the harvest to continuously replenish your Layer 1 storage.
• Layer 3, from both traditions: Invest seriously in community. Build a network of neighbors and fellow homesteaders with complementary skills and resources. Establish mutual aid expectations before they are needed. Practice the skills regularly enough that they are genuinely reliable under stress.

A 2020 report from FEMA’s National Household Survey found that households with both individual preparedness measures and strong community connections were significantly more likely to report confidence in their ability to handle a major disaster than those with either element alone. The Amish and LDS traditions arrived at this conclusion independently, through different paths, centuries before the researchers confirmed it.

Learn the Everyday Habits That Make the Amish So Self-Reliant

The Amish didn’t become one of America’s most self-sufficient communities overnight. Their resilience comes from generations of practical knowledge, simple routines, and time-tested skills that anyone can begin learning today.

The Amish Ways reveals hundreds of traditional techniques for preserving food, growing abundant gardens, caring for livestock, cooking from scratch, maintaining a homestead, and living with greater independence from modern systems. Whether you’re a prepper, homesteader, or simply want to become more self-reliant, this book is packed with practical wisdom you can put to work immediately.

👉 Get your copy of The Amish Ways today and start building a stronger, more resilient way of life!

Final Thoughts

The Amish and the Latter-day Saints have built the two most successful models of deliberate self-sufficiency in modern America. One achieved it by stepping back from the modern world and building deeply within a tight community. The other achieved it by working systematically within modern life while maintaining the discipline to prepare for its disruptions.

Neither model is complete on its own. The Amish system is extraordinarily resilient but requires a level of community density and cultural continuity that most modern homesteaders cannot immediately replicate. The LDS system is practical and accessible for modern households but can create well-stocked pantries without the production skills and community depth to sustain them through a genuine long-term disruption.

The homesteader who studies both traditions carefully and takes the best from each will build something more practical and more resilient than either tradition provides alone: a household that produces its own food through embedded seasonal practice, stores it systematically and in depth, knows how to use everything it has stored, and is genuinely embedded in a community capable of mutual aid when it is needed most.

That is not a religious model. It is a human one, and it is available to anyone willing to build it.

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Last week at the grocery store, I saw a woman ahead of me putting items back on the shelf. A jar of peanut butter and a bag of apples. She was probably doing the math in her head, deciding what her family could skip that week. Mark and I have been there. Maybe you have been too. 

The same day, I passed an Amish farm and saw a young man loading produce into a buggy. He looked genuinely happy about it, and I was almost certain every bit of what he was carrying had come straight off the farm and was ready to be sold.

The Consumer Price Index rose 2.7% for the year ending December 2025, with food up 3.1%. Then March 2026 hit and the all-items index jumped 3.3%, with energy spiking 12.5%. The Amish? They feel almost none of it. (bls.gov)

Nobody is completely immune to inflation, but the Amish know something the rest of us forgot. And the best part is that both you and I can use these principles on our homesteads. 

The 5-Step Spending Rule the Amish Live By

Before they start spending money, an Amish household runs a need through five filters. In this specific order:

1. Make it. Can we build, sew, grow, or cook this ourselves?
2. Mend it. Can we fix or repair what we already have?
3. Make do. Can we live without it for now, or use something else we own?
4. Barter for it. Can we trade goods, food, or labor with someone in the community? (See how to barter like the Amish here) 
5. Buy it. Pay cash. Borrowing is a last resort, and almost never for consumer goods.

Think about how backwards this is from how most people shop. They notice a need, hop into the car, and rush to the store. On the other hand, the Amish walk through every other option first. 

Here’s where following these principles paid off for us last summer. Our chest freezer died on the hottest week of August, with about $400 worth of meat inside. The replacement Mark priced out was $749, plus tax, plus delivery. But instead of buying a new one, he called a friend two roads over who runs a small appliance repair business on weekends. 

The compressor relay had failed. Forty-two dollars in parts, two hours in our garage, a pot of chili for his trouble. We saved the meat and the freezer is still humming as I type this. 

If you want to have peace of mind and be sure you have a backup in case your fridge fails, just like ours did, you can build an Amish fridge. This is a sustainable, electricity-free food preservation solution that takes one weekend to build and is ideal for any homesteader who prefers the old-school approach.

Watch the video below and see exactly how this setup keeps food cold without electricity, refrigerant, or a single moving part.

How a Work Party Can Save You $2,000

The Amish call their work gatherings frolics. Hundreds of neighbors show up to build, quilt, butcher, or harvest, all without pay. The work gets done in a day instead of weeks, and everyone eats together afterward.

This is the part most homesteaders miss. We pride ourselves on complete independence, but the Amish model is not just about being independent. They rely on their community a lot, and they teach us how to be interdependent while sharing our lives with the right people. Nobody pays a contractor when twenty neighbors will frame a shed for the cost of lunch.

The $1,680 a Year Most Families Burn for Nothing

This is the section I want you to read twice.

The average American household carries around $9,148 in credit card debt as of late 2025. The average APR on cards accruing interest sat at 22.30% in the fourth quarter of 2025 (source). Run those numbers and the average household pays roughly $1,680 a year in interest alone. Money that buys nothing. No groceries. No firewood. No seeds.

That $1,680 isn’t a luxury but a tax you pay the bank for the privilege of being in debt.

The Amish reject commercial insurance, Social Security, and consumer credit. When somebody gets very sick, the community pays the hospital bill in cash. When a barn burns down, the church takes up a collection. They don’t need to carry credit cards.

Obviously, you are not going to cancel your health insurance tomorrow. That would be reckless, and I’d never advise you to do something like this. But just think about it. We are not talking about health here, but about all of those things you might buy and use just once. Do you really want to be in debt for things you don’t really need? Or do you want to buy just useful items and the ones you can use for bartering? 

A Backyard Garden Can Pay You $740 a Year

Researchers from Kansas State University’s extension program found that home gardens can produce between $180 and $1,300 worth of food per season above what you spent on inputs. The range depends on what you grow, how big your plot is, and whether you preserve the surplus.

I keep a notebook in my kitchen drawer where I track what I put up each year. Last summer I canned 47 quarts of tomato sauce, 32 jars of pickles, 18 quarts of green beans, and froze enough corn and berries to get us through to June. After subtracting seed and jar costs, I landed at about $740 saved.

Now I want to share with you a great rule for all gardeners: grow what’s expensive to buy and what stores well. Don’t waste raised bed space on lettuce that costs $1.99 a head. Plant tomatoes, peppers, garlic, winter squash, and sweet potatoes.

What the Amish Actually Buy (It’s Not What You Think)

Here’s a misconception I’d like to clear up. The Amish aren’t living in 1850 anymore. Some of them made peace with technology. 

A typical Amish farmhouse in many communities runs on propane. Propane refrigerators, propane stoves, propane lights, propane water heaters. Workshops use diesel generators and pneumatic tools powered by air compressors. Many Amish carpenters work with battery-powered drills, saws, and lights charged off solar panels or generators. Some progressive communities even allow stripped-down word processors and shared business phones in a shanty at the end of the lane.

When they need to travel beyond buggy distance, they hire what locals call an “Amish taxi.” This is a neighbor with a van who drives them to the hospital, the bulk store, or a wedding three counties over. They pay by the mile. They don’t own the car, but they use one when the need is real.

The principle they live by is what matters: own the technology that builds your life, rent the technology that connects you to the outside world, and refuse the technology that pulls your family apart. 

Inflation-Proof Skills Nobody Can Take From You

Money loses value every year, but a skill you’ve built into your hands? That’s personal capital that doesn’t devalue when the dollar does.

A few worth mentioning:

• Bread baking. A loaf of bread at the store is now $4. The flour, salt, and yeast to make one at home costs about 60 cents.
• Basic plumbing. Replacing a wax ring on a toilet is a $15 part and takes twenty minutes. The plumber charges $250.
• Food preservation. Canning, fermenting, dehydrating, smoking. Every jar in your pantry is a future grocery trip you don’t have to make.
• Sewing and mending. A patched pair of work pants beats a $40 replacement.
• Small engine repair. Lawnmowers, chainsaws, tillers, generators. The shop charges $90 an hour.

Each one of these is a skill the Amish learn before they’re sixteen. Each one stays with you for life, regardless of what the Fed does next month.

The thing is that many of those skills you can’t learn just from YouTube. Having insight from an expert is what makes the difference between the skills you truly developed and some shallow project you tried once and failed.

That’s why I want to point you toward The Amish Ways Academy. It’s run by Eddie Swartzentruber, who grew up in one of the most conservative Amish settlements in the country. He spent his whole childhood without electricity, plumbing, or store-bought medicine, and now he’s filming everything he learned before the knowledge is gone.

Click here and see what’s in the Academy!

Four Amish-Style Habits to Start This Week

Run the 5-step rule on your next purchase over $50. Before you click buy, walk through make, mend, make do, barter. Even if you end up buying it, you’ll catch one out of every four purchases you would’ve made on autopilot.

Build your own little frolic group. Find two or three families nearby who think as you do. Trade labor on big projects instead of hiring out. Start with one Saturday this month. Pick a project at one homestead and rally the others.

Kill the highest-interest debt you carry. Pick the card or loan with the worst APR and throw everything you can at it. The interest you stop paying is the rawest, fastest “raise” you’ll ever get. Farmland tracks inflation over time, but only after you’ve stopped feeding the bank first.

Track every jar, every loaf, every repair. Keep a notebook. Write down what you would’ve paid retail. By December, you’ll have a number that changes how you see your homestead. Mine was $740 from canning alone last year, and that was just the tomatoes, pickles, and beans.

Final Thoughts

In reality, the Amish are just very good at avoiding all the things that make inflation hurt. They are not completely immune, but they downsize the effects that much that you could say they are not affected at all.

Every credit card balance, every monthly subscription, every appliance you replaced when you could’ve fixed it, every meal you bought when you could’ve grown it. Each one is a string tying you to the price of things you don’t control. This is the lesson I learned after reading about their lifestyle for years. The Amish cut those strings, one at a time, generation after generation, until almost none were left.

Now I am aware that cutting all of these things might not be the best choice for you and me, but you know the drill: just take what makes sense for you and your homestead. Most of us aren’t going to give up cars, insurance, or the internet. But you can still cut some.

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The Amish are often portrayed as people frozen in time, but that picture misses something important. Their choices are rarely about nostalgia. They’re about function, tradition, and results that have worked for generations. Raw milk is a good example. While most of the modern world drinks pasteurized milk without a second thought, many Amish families continue to consume milk straight from the cow. Not because they’re unaware of modern food safety rules, but because they operate under a completely different food system.

To understand why the Amish drink raw milk, you have to look at how they produce food, how they manage animals, and what they value when it comes to health and self-reliance.

Raw Milk Fits a Closed, Controlled Food System

The biggest difference between Amish milk and supermarket milk isn’t the pasteurization process. It’s scale. Amish dairies are small, local, and tightly controlled. The cows are usually raised by the same family that drinks the milk. They know the animals, the feed, the pasture, and the milking conditions.

Raw milk becomes far riskier when it’s pooled from hundreds or thousands of cows, transported long distances, and stored for extended periods. That’s the industrial model pasteurization was designed to fix. The Amish simply don’t operate that way. Their milk often goes from cow to table within hours, not days.

This short chain reduces contamination risks significantly, especially when paired with strict cleanliness during milking and storage.

Tradition Backed by Daily Observation

For the Amish, raw milk isn’t a trend or a health movement. It’s how milk has always been consumed. Many Amish adults grew up drinking raw milk daily and watched their parents and grandparents do the same. Over time, that creates a powerful form of evidence they trust more than studies or headlines.

They pay close attention to how food affects the body. If something consistently caused illness, weakness, or long-term problems, it wouldn’t survive as a community practice. Raw milk, in their experience, did the opposite. It nourished children, supported hard physical labor, and fit into a diet built around whole, minimally processed foods.

Nutritional Reasons Matter to Them

Pasteurization involves heating milk to kill bacteria, but that heat also alters certain enzymes and proteins. Supporters of raw milk often point out that unpasteurized milk contains naturally occurring enzymes and beneficial bacteria that don’t survive pasteurization.

The Amish don’t frame this in scientific language, but they understand it practically. Raw milk is seen as more “alive,” more filling, and more satisfying. Many believe it digests better and provides more usable nutrition, especially when combined with traditional diets high in homegrown vegetables, fermented foods, and pasture-raised meats.

Healthy Cows Are Central to the Practice

Another key factor is animal health. Amish dairy cows are typically pasture-raised, grass-fed for much of the year, and not pushed for extreme production. They’re not confined in large feedlots or fed heavy grain-based rations year-round.

Healthier animals produce cleaner milk. When cows are stressed, overcrowded, or poorly fed, disease risk rises. The Amish model reduces those pressures. Regular observation means sick animals are noticed quickly and removed from the milk supply.

Raw milk only makes sense when animal care is a priority. The Amish understand that without healthy cows, the entire system fails.

Legal and Cultural Independence

In many regions, selling raw milk is heavily restricted or illegal. The Amish often navigate these laws carefully, sometimes consuming raw milk only within their own community or through private arrangements.

This isn’t defiance for its own sake. It reflects a broader Amish principle: minimizing dependence on outside systems. When you produce your own food, process it yourself, and consume it locally, you’re less vulnerable to supply disruptions, regulations, or market shifts.

Raw milk is part of that independence. It removes reliance on processing facilities, refrigeration chains, and commercial distribution.

Raw Milk Is Not a Casual Choice

It’s important to be clear: the Amish don’t treat raw milk casually. Clean equipment, immediate cooling, proper storage, and strict routines are standard. This isn’t milk sitting warm in a bucket all day. It’s handled with discipline because everyone understands the consequences of carelessness.

This is where many modern attempts to imitate Amish practices fail. People focus on the product, not the system behind it. Without the same controls, raw milk becomes a different and riskier proposition.

Learn the Food Traditions That Kept Amish Families Healthy for Generations

Raw milk is just one small example of how the Amish approach food differently. Their strength doesn’t come from a single habit, but from a complete, self-contained way of living where food, health, and daily routines are tightly connected.

The Amish Ways Book takes you inside that system and explains how these communities preserved health long before industrial food, refrigeration trucks, and processing plants existed.

Inside the book, you’ll discover:

• How Amish families handle milk, meat, grains, and vegetables without modern processing
• Traditional food storage methods that reduce spoilage and waste
• Why short supply chains matter more than technology
• How animal care directly impacts food quality and human health
• Daily habits that quietly reduce dependence on outside systems
• Simple, repeatable practices that still work today in any rural or suburban setting

If you’re curious about why Amish food choices like raw milk make sense within their lifestyle—and how much of that wisdom still applies today – this book connects the dots and shows the bigger picture.

Final Thoughts

The Amish drink raw milk because it fits their way of life. It aligns with small-scale farming, close animal care, short supply chains, and food traditions tested over generations. It’s not about rejecting science or modern knowledge. It’s about trusting a system they can see, control, and maintain themselves.

In the Amish world, food isn’t something that comes from far away in a carton. It’s something you’re responsible for from beginning to end. Raw milk is simply one expression of that responsibility.

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The post Why Do Amish Drink Raw Milk? first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

The idea of the Amish using a technology like solar panels seems to contradict the lifestyle many of us assume about their culture and society. But the Amish actually see solar power as a resource that aligns perfectly with their dedication to independence, self-reliance and self-sufficiency. What the Amish shun are things like the power grid or the Internet. They are determined to remain free of networks and any dependence on outside influences or connections. Solar power actually fuels that independence and they have embraced it across a variety of uses.

The first use of solar by the Amish goes back to the way they would paint their water barrels, rain barrels and water towers black.

The black paint absorbed the rays of the sun keeping the water ice free in winter and warm in summer. They would also give off stored heat at night to keep a greenhouse warm in cold weather.

It was a very passive example of how to use the sun for a benefit but it’s curious to note that they embraced it going back hundreds of years ago.

It was in the 1980’s when commercially available solar panels first emerged that the Amish began to use them. The first efforts involved simply charging a 12-volt battery to power simple light fixtures, small fans, and other small appliances.

As time went on they expanded their use of solar and the number of panels to increase their solar power generation capability to power tools, water pumps, and larger appliances. Solar generators emerged as a way to store and manage the power.

Today they have even adapted solar power to power their previously horse-drawn buggies and to provide power to equipment like large circulating fans and lighting in their barns and sheds.

The Amish are known for their furniture making skills and solar generated power allowed them to power large equipment for furniture making in their workshops including table saws, planers, drill presses and other heavy equipment used for furniture making.

We’re going to cover the many uses that the Amish have found for solar power and some of the basic equipment they install to make it all work.

Lighting

Traditionally, the Amish d oil or kerosene lamps for lighting. The fuel had to be purchased; the lamps sometimes gave off fumes and were always a fire hazard. Solar power changed all of that as battery banks and solar generators collected and stored the power. The old fuel lanterns were replaced with LED lighting often appearing in lantern shaped fixtures.

Jut as important were solar powered flood lights that lit up the interiors of barns, sheds and greenhouses or wide expanses of a pasture, yard or driveway.

Individual solar lights helped to illuminate dark areas around gates, doors and paths and most automatically turned on at night or would turn on whenever motion was detected.

Refrigeration

The old Amish solution for refrigeration was propane powered refrigerators. Once again, they had to buy the propane cylinders from time to time and solar power gave it to them free.

Solar refrigerators tend to be smaller than their electric cousins and are designed for efficiency in terms of insulation, but if there are enough solar panels and a grouped battery bank there’s more than enough power for refrigeration.

Solar Water Pumps

Hand pumps were the norm on many Amish farms, and they still use them, but solar has stepped up to pump water from ponds and rivers to the homestead, to pump water up and into a water tower or out to the house. Solar pumps are also used in basement cisterns to pump water up to the kitchen and bathrooms and as sump pumps. Gone were the days of the outhouse as solar pumps kept toilet tanks full and even supplied enough water for washing machines, dishwashers and kitchen faucets.

And yes, the washing machines and dishwashers were powered by solar although many Amish still do those chores by hand.

On a side note, many Amish farms still use traditional windmills to pump water up to their farms, gardens, homes and barns.

Solar Sheds and Workshops

The Amish still use hand tools to a large degree, but there are some tasks that are performed more accurately and easily with machinery and equipment. Solar panels on the roof of a shed or workshop powered furniture making equipment, log splitters, air pumps, hand tools, lighting and any other powered tools. They also provided power for lighting in the shed or workshop and powered ventilation fans.

This gets back to another great thing about solar power. It is highly portable and even the most remote locations can have power with a few solar panels.

Solar Barns

There are few Amish farms without a barn and from the tools needed for barn raising to all of the equipment to take care of livestock, lighting, water pumps for cattle troughs, ceiling fans above and in the roof for ventilation, and anything else in the barn that needed power – solar was the power source.

Solar Electric Fences

Sometimes livestock need a reminder, and a low-voltage electric fence gives them a gentle reminder to stay put. An electric fence was usually out of reach for a society that shunned commercially generated electricity, but solar power not only gave them the autonomy to power an electric fence, but it was free.

Occasional solar panels along the length of fence charged a battery that kept the fence electrified.

Solar Grain Dryers

Solar power also kept ventilation fans and low temperature heat in a silo to accelerate and evenly dry stored grains. It could even power a blade to mix and distribute the grain in a silo to ensure even drying. This was especially valuable in winter and spring when moist grains could clump or succumb to fungus.

Solar Pastures

Solar panels work best when given a full, southern exposure. When there wasn’t any more room on the roofs the Amish turned to solar pastures. An array of solar panels shared the pasture with the sheep and the goats and if elevated high enough would allow the livestock to still feed below the panels.

Solar Powered Buggies and Bikes

Here again, it seems to contradict the Amish tradition to talk about solar buggies but the whole reason for the horses was to continue to maintain that distance and dependence from the outside world. A solar powered buggy is consistent with that philosophy and once again it saved money on the cost of numerous horses (they always keep a few); horse feed and other costs related to total dependence on “horse power.”

Electric bikes have also emerged as a popular form of transportation once again replacing the need for a horse. The electric bikes are popular with all ages in an Amish family and are of course recharged with solar power.

The Solar Outhouse

Imagine an outhouse with running water, a flush toilet, a functioning sink and heat in the winter. Solar panels on the roof powering a water pump and small heater make that all possible. It may seem redundant if there is a flush toilet in the house powered by solar, but many Amish farms are spread across large tracts of land. Everything gets easier when you don’t half to walk a half a mile to go to the bathroom. Any outhouse can be set up anywhere but a solar outhouse in a pasture is a luxury.

Solar Water Heating

Solar water heating often shows up on the roof next to solar panels. It usually consists of a series of black pipes that circulate water to a holding tank that releases hot water on demand.

These rooftop solar water heating setups then use gravity to deliver the hot water to kitchens, bathrooms and laundry rooms.

The Water Freedom System uses such a simple solar panel to pull moisture straight out of the air and turn it into clean, drinkable water.

The good news is, you don’t need a massive or expensive solar array to make it work.

Right here, you can find all the details on the exact type of solar panel you’ll need (trust me—it’s cheap and simple to set up), along with the other components that allow the system to generate 20–30 gallons of water every single day.

The same principle powers my favorite portable generator, which I also built at home using the step-by-step plans available on this page.

From the start, it’s important to point out that this is a backpack-sized water generator. That means it’s compact, lightweight, and easy to carry wherever you go. Naturally, the solar panel it requires is also small and portable.

Here is the full plan, based on the very same techniques the U.S. military has used for years on dry, hostile battlefields across the world.

Every watt of solar power you generate means one less drop of gasoline you’ll ever need.

Solar Cooking

It’s easy to improvise a solar oven or you can buy them online and the Amish would often use a solar oven setup to slow cook foods, soups or stews. Think of it as the first slow cooker. On a hot day with direct sunlight hitting the solar oven at a 90 degree angle the temperatures can get up to 250 degrees F. (121 degrees C.). That’s more than enough to boil water.

Getting Started with a Basic Solar Power Setup

There are solar kits sold online that include solar panels, a control board and solar generators or batteries. You may also need AC inverters that convert the DC power in batteries for AC powered equipment and appliances.

The roof is a common location for solar panels or supported on the ground. The critical success factor is consistent exposure to the southern sky. The sun travels across the southern sky all year. Some supports are adjustable to change the angle as the sun traverses lower in the sky in winter and higher in the sky in summer.

How many panels you need is proportional to your energy needs. Do the math and estimate the wattage you will be using and think about the wattage generation of your panels on an hourly basis and your storage capacity.

Wattage on solar panels ranges from 75 watts to 200 watts per panel per hour. You then need to calculate the average amount of sunlight you will get remembering that days are shorter in winter and longer in summer. There’s also the cloud factor. Solar panels will still capture a charge on a cloudy day, but not as much as they would in full sun. There are many articles and videos on the Internet that can help you with various calculations.

Learn More Amish Secrets

Many of these powerful tips come straight from The Amish Ways Book– a rare, physical guide packed with hundreds of proven survival strategies rooted in Amish tradition.

In the book, you’ll also find many other secret Amish tips and techniques that could save your life in a crisis.

For the first time ever, this 200-year-old wisdom is available in a beautifully made hardcover edition, authored by Eddie Swartzentruber, a man who spent 16 years living within the Amish community and learning their way of life first-hand. You can grab your own copy today and claim 3 FREE BONUSES using my exclusive 76% discount coupon right here.

These time-honored techniques have helped the Amish thrive off-grid and remain resilient in the face of societal collapse. Don’t wait for disaster to strike. Start mastering these skills today!

Here’s how the amish heat and cool their homes without electricity!

Upgrade as You Go

Start small and basic and increase your panels and storage capability over time. You’ll probably find that once you get into solar power you will start to see more and more applications, and you can increase the size of your setup as you go.

The Amish have learned the solar lesson well and it’s a wise decision for anyone dedicated to a sense of self-sufficiency, sustainability, and independence.

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The post Ingenious Solar-Powered Projects Inspired By the Amish first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

Among the Amish, every choice reflects a balance between tradition, practicality and spiritual grounding. Their relationship with alcohol is no exception. While many imagine the Amish as strictly abstaining from anything modern or indulgent, the truth is far more layered. Different communities follow different rules, and their approach to alcohol is shaped by intention, purpose and the desire to preserve harmony within the group. To understand whether the Amish drink alcohol, we need to look at how history, faith and daily life guide their decisions.

Alcohol in Old Order Amish Communities

In most Old Order groups, alcohol is used with caution and purpose. These communities hold closely to the Ordnung, the set of unwritten rules that governs daily life. While the Ordnung discourages excess or anything that promotes pride or recklessness, it does not automatically forbid alcohol.

Some Old Order families may serve small amounts of homemade wine during weddings or major celebrations. These wines often come from old family recipes, crafted with the same care they use in their food preservation. The focus is always on tradition rather than recreation. The wine is shared to honor family and community, not to create excitement or intoxication.

Medicinal wines and herbal tonics also have a place in these communities. A small dose of elderberry wine for winter immunity or bitters for digestion is not uncommon. These remedies reflect a long-standing belief that the earth provides what the body needs and that natural preparations should be respected.

Alcohol in More Moderate or Progressive Communities

In certain Amish districts that lean more moderate, beer or wine may be enjoyed socially after a long day of farm work or during community gatherings such as barn raisings. Even in these places, the use is conservative. Moderation is deeply valued. Drinking is done quietly, often in the company of close friends or family, and rarely extends into the kind of behavior that the community would view as disruptive.

These communities recognize that fellowship plays a role in emotional and social health. A small drink among trusted friends can be part of shared relaxation, but it never becomes the center of the gathering. The Amish view alcohol through the lens of responsibility, not entertainment.

New Order Amish and Abstinence

New Order Amish groups are generally the strictest regarding alcohol. Many of them avoid it entirely. Their focus on spiritual purity and personal discipline leads them to believe that alcohol is unnecessary for a fulfilling life. They emphasize youth guidance, clear thinking and strong moral choices, values they feel are better supported without alcohol in the picture.

Even in these communities, the reasoning is not rooted in judgment but in clarity. They prefer to remove influences that might distract from faith, family or self-control. Abstinence becomes a way to protect inner peace.

Community Expectations and Social Responsibility

Across all Amish groups, one belief remains consistent. Intoxication is unacceptable. It disrupts order, damages trust and contradicts the humility they work so hard to nurture. Anyone who shows signs of drinking to excess will be gently but firmly corrected. The goal is not punishment but restoration. Amish communities believe that a person’s behavior affects everyone around them, so responsibility is always communal.

Alcohol is treated as a tool. Some use it medicinally. Some use it socially. Some avoid it altogether. But none of them allow it to take up more space than it deserves. Their discipline is not about restriction. It is about creating lives that stay balanced, grounded and focused on what truly matters.

Why the Amish Approach Is So Misunderstood

Outsiders often assume the Amish live by strict yes or no rules for every part of life. But the Amish worldview is shaped more by principles than absolutes. The question is never, can we. It is always, should we. Should this action support the community. Should it strengthen faith. Should it protect the family.

This thoughtful, measured decision making is what guides their relationship with alcohol. Understanding it gives us a clearer view of how they maintain a culture that resists chaos even in a fast-moving world.

Learn From The Amish Ways

If you want to understand the deeper wisdom behind Amish traditions, The Amish Ways offers a practical and inspiring guide into their world. Inside this book, you will discover how Amish families stay resilient without modern stress, how they manage their finances with remarkable discipline, how they craft natural remedies from simple ingredients, how they maintain strong community bonds and how they raise children with calm confidence and purpose. The Amish Ways also explores their methods for preserving food, building durable homes, structuring daily routines and creating peaceful households built on clarity and intention. If you are searching for a life with more balance, more stability and more meaning, this book will show you the timeless skills and habits the Amish have relied on for generations.

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The post Do Amish Drink Alcohol? first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

For most of us, electricity is as essential as air. It powers our mornings, fills our homes with light, and connects us to the wider world. But for the Amish, life without electricity isn’t a hardship — it’s a deliberate choice. Their quiet refusal to rely on modern power isn’t about rejecting progress; it’s about preserving faith, family, and community from the noise of dependency.

So, do the Amish use electricity? The answer is both yes and no, depending on how you define it.

Why the Amish Choose to Live Without Public Power

The Amish decision to avoid electricity from the public grid comes from a deep-rooted desire to stay separate from the world. In the early 20th century, as rural America was wired for power, the Amish saw something subtle yet dangerous in those lines — connection not just to energy, but to outside influence.

By refusing the grid, they limited worldly distractions like television, radio, and now smartphones — things that could erode their spiritual discipline and pull their hearts away from faith. Their belief in Gelassenheit — a spirit of humility, simplicity, and community — means avoiding anything that promotes pride, vanity, or division.

In short, rejecting public electricity isn’t about being “anti-technology.” It’s about staying grounded in values that have survived for centuries.

What the Amish understood early on is that every connection comes with a cost. For them, that cost wasn’t measured in dollars, but in freedom. When you depend on the grid, you depend on the system — and when the system fails, so does your independence.

When the Amish Do Use Electricity

What surprises most outsiders is that the Amish aren’t completely “off” electricity. They use it — just not the way we do.

Instead of plugging into the public grid, Amish families often power specific tools or systems using off-grid alternatives like:

• 12-volt batteries (similar to car batteries) for lighting or fans
• Propane or diesel generators for refrigerators, water pumps, or saws
• Solar panels in certain communities for farm operations or workshops
• Compressed air and hydraulics to power heavy tools and machinery

Each community, or district, decides what is acceptable through a local code called the Ordnung. Some are stricter, allowing almost no mechanical tools, while others permit carefully chosen technologies that support work but not luxury.

For example, an Amish carpenter might use an air-powered saw connected to a diesel compressor — efficient and powerful, yet disconnected from modern convenience. A farmer might run a milking machine powered by a generator but record his production by hand.

The key difference lies in control. The Amish generate and maintain their own power, on their own land, without relying on corporations or government utilities.

The Balance Between Tradition and Adaptation

The Amish relationship with technology isn’t frozen in time. It evolves slowly, guided by collective wisdom and cautious testing. While most of us adopt new gadgets overnight, the Amish may spend decades discussing the moral and practical impact of a single device.

This patience has kept their communities stable in a world addicted to convenience. Without screens or endless notifications, their lives revolve around people, not pixels. Their evenings are filled with conversation, their days with purpose. Their homes glow with oil lamps instead of LEDs — and somehow, they’ve preserved something the rest of the world has lost: peace.

Interestingly, some Amish now use solar panels — not as a shortcut to comfort, but as a tool for sustainability. It’s not rebellion against tradition; it’s adaptation that fits their principles: self-reliance without dependency. They accept tools only if they strengthen community and faith, never if they weaken it.

Lessons from a Life Beyond the Grid

The Amish lifestyle reminds us that electricity, while convenient, can make us fragile. Every device, every bill, every outage ties us tighter to a system we can’t control. When it falters, we falter too.

But for the Amish, a blackout means nothing. Their water still flows, their stoves still heat, and their homes stay warm under the steady glow of lanterns. They’ve built resilience by limiting dependency, not expanding it.

Their choices challenge the modern idea of “progress.” They remind us that real security doesn’t come from technology — it comes from self-reliance, community, and the ability to endure change without panic.

Practical Takeaway: How to Apply Amish Wisdom at Home

You don’t have to live in an Amish settlement to adopt their wisdom. Anyone can take small steps toward independence and simplicity:

• Start small with off-grid tools. Try using manual kitchen tools, oil lamps, or solar lanterns during outages.
• Invest in sustainable systems. Rainwater collection, solar panels, or wood stoves reduce dependence on fragile grids.
• Simplify energy habits. Unplug unused devices, dry clothes outdoors, and cook with minimal electricity.
• Reconnect with your community. Trade skills, share tools, and rebuild the neighborly support we’ve lost.
• Focus on values, not gadgets. Ask yourself: Does this tool make me more capable — or more dependent?

You don’t need to abandon electricity to live like the Amish — you just need to control it instead of letting it control you. Every unplugged moment is a quiet act of freedom.

The Forgotten Power of Simplicity

The Amish life is not about deprivation — it’s about clarity. By living intentionally, they’ve built resilience that most of us only think about when the power goes out. Their wisdom offers a timeless reminder: independence isn’t found in having everything. It’s found in needing less.

Learn More in The Amish Ways Book

If you’ve ever wondered how to live closer to nature, work with your hands, and depend less on fragile systems, The Amish Ways Book is your guide.

Inside, you’ll discover:

• How the Amish cook, preserve, and store food without electricity
• Old-world building methods that still outperform modern designs
• Natural remedies and herbal healing techniques used for generations
• Simple daily habits that cultivate peace, patience, and resilience

These are the same time-tested methods that keep Amish families thriving without fear of power outages or supply shortages.

You don’t need to join their community to learn from their wisdom — you just need the willingness to live by their principles: work hard, waste little, and rely on yourself.

👉 Explore The Amish Ways Book here — and start building a life that stays strong when the grid, and the world, go dark.

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The post Do Amish People Use Electricity? first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

The Amish have quietly preserved a way of life that values simplicity, self-reliance, and the natural rhythms of the earth. They offer a time-tested, proven example of how to not just survive, but thrive off the grid.

One of their lesser-known but deeply practical traditions is burying food—a method rooted in both necessity and wisdom. For the Amish, this practice isn’t just a charming relic of the past; it’s a critical survival technique that you might want to consider adding to your preparedness strategy.

Why the Amish Bury Their Food

The Amish practice of burying their food is a survival strategy that helps them live off the grid and maintain their high level of self-reliance. Though some finer points might help you integrate the practice.

Staying Off the Grid

Most Amish communities live entirely without electricity or rely only on limited solar or gas power. This means no refrigerators, freezers, or electric dehydrators. To keep food fresh year-round, they rely on the soil’s insulating properties.

A few feet below the surface, temperatures remain consistent throughout the year, typically between 45 to 55°F. This is great for storing many root vegetables, canned goods, and even canned meat.

Self-Reliance & Frugality

For the Amish, burying food is also about resourcefulness. Why spend money on ice, fuel, or modern tech when the ground under your feet offers reliable refrigeration for free? This low-tech approach aligns with their values of wasting nothing, living humbly, and relying on the land.

Maintaining a Safe Food Reserve

For the Amish, a barn or a house can burn down. A tornado can ravage their community, or blight can decimate their summer crops. Yet food stored in the ground is usually incredibly safe. This gives them the nourishment they need for the time they need to rebuild their basic way of life.

Preservation of Tradition

Burying food is a tradition passed down through generations. Grandparents teaching grandchildren how to build a root cellar, how to can properly, and how to use clay or sand for insulation. It’s not just about storing food, it’s about preserving a legacy of important life lessons.

What Foods Do the Amish Bury?

You might be surprised by the variety of foods the Amish safely store underground. Over the centuries, families have fine-tuned these methods to be able to preserve surplus food items.

Root Vegetables

Potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips, and rutabagas are ideal candidates for buried storage. They’re typically stored in layers in bins or barrels. The Amish then scatter a modest layer of sand or sawdust between each layer to maintain moisture balance and prevent rot.

Fruits

Apples, pears, quince, and whole cranberries can be stored in cool underground cellars or buried in underground storage spaces. Amish families will often wrap them in paper or pack them in straw to prevent bruising and rot. Kept this way, these fruits can last 4 to 6 months.

Canned and Jarred Goods

The Amish will often store home-canned vegetables, fruits, meats, and pickled items underground where the temperature and darkness help extend shelf life. When dug deep enough, buried jars remain stable for years.

>> Must-Have Survival Foods And How to Preserve Them

Alliums

Garlic, onions, and leeks are often braided and hung in underground spaces where they are safe from freezing, and hold the proper level of moisture. Hanging them from the ceiling of an underground storage cellar also keeps them up away from rodents and other pests that might try to eat them.

Fermented Foods

In colder seasons, some families bury crocks of fermented sauerkraut, cucumbers and other naturally picked vegetables. Once the fermentation process is complete, the salinity, natural acidity, and beneficial bacterial culture of the fermented foods help keep them safe in cool underground conditions for up to a year.

Butter

In cold, northern climates, the Amish will wrap butter in waxed cloth. Then, carefully store the blocks inside earthen pits lined with straw. This keeps them cold and edible for the winter months without taking up room in the kitche,n where warm air will shorten their shelf life.

Go In-Depth

If you want to learn more about how the Amish preserve their food without electricity — and how you can do the same — The Amish Ways Book is a must-have resource. This unique book reveals the food storage secrets passed down through generations of Amish families, many of which are almost entirely forgotten by the modern world.

Inside, you’ll discover:

• How to build a backyard root cellar using only a trash can or barrel
• How to make an “Amish fridge” that keeps food cool with no power
• Forgotten foods that don’t need refrigeration and last for months
• Why the Amish store eggs in salt and beeswax instead of the fridge
• How to keep food safe in a well or stream when disaster strikes

Whether you’re preparing for economic collapse, an EMP, or just want to get off the grid, this book offers old-world wisdom that works in any crisis.

👨‍🌾 Grab your copy while it’s still available (Only a Few Copies Left!)

How the Amish Bury Their Food: Tools, Techniques & Tips

If you want to replicate Amish food storage methods, you don’t need high-tech gear or a big budget. All you really need is deep soil, time, and a little know-how.

A Root Cellar

A root cellar is the gold standard in Amish food storage. It’s a small underground room, often built into a hillside or dug several feet below ground. They reinforce the walls. Often, lining them with wooden shelves and a vent system for airflow.

Stone, concrete, or heavy timbers are used to support the walls. Then the earthen floors help regulate humidity. The vertical wooden timbers also provide a structure for securing

A modest amount of cross-ventilation prevents mold and controls condensation. Some Amish use adjustable vent pipes to let in cold air during winter and expel heat in summer. You’ll also want to account for the prevailing wind direction and avoid having inflowing air from a south-facing vent.

Pro Tip: If you don’t have space for a full cellar, a barrel or trash can be buried in the ground can function as a “mini cellar” for storing a smaller stash of food. Ideally, you want it buried with at least 2 to 3 feet of soil above the ceiling or lid to maximize the insulating qualities of the soil.

In-Ground Storage Bins & Pits

With a shovel, some heavy-duty totes, and scrap lumber, you can make a sturdy in-ground food storage locker. Ideally, the floor of this space would be at least 6 feet deep. Then you build a frame from old pallet lumber to keep the walls from collapsing in and create a makeshift ceiling.

If you find natural clay while digging the initial pit, set it aside. When you’re ready to bury the pit, put the clay on top of the ceiling or “Roof.” This will provide a little waterproofing.

Bury most of the ceiling area and pack the soil tightly to prevent rainwater seepage. Then leave enough of a hole big enough to let you pull up a tote bin.

After you’ve secured the tote bins, crocks, or clay pots inside, you need to fill the entrance. A lightweight wooden box or plastic bags filled with dried leaves is the natural option. However, my survivalist uncle’s best trick was to make a block of spray foam the right size. Then covered everything with sod.

Pro Tip: If you want to build an efficient root cellar for storing your supplies, I recommend choosing a solution that works well in the long term. The Easy Cellar costs less than $400—cheaper than the cheapest iPhone. You can assemble it yourself, anywhere on your property, and it provides ample space to store food, water, and other important items.

Plus, this underground bunker can also serve as a shelter in serious SHTF situations. Learn more here and make a wise investment in protecting your resources.

One Last Thing…

If you’re serious about learning the forgotten skills that kept America going before the grid, The Amish Ways Academy is unlike anything else out there. Built by Eddie Swartzentruber—who grew up in one of the most conservative Amish communities in Minnesota—this video course is packed with practical, no-electricity skills that can help you survive long-term grid-down scenarios, food shortages, and medical collapse.

Inside, you’ll discover:

• How to make off-grid fridges
• How to make natural antibiotics
• How to make bread that lasts a year
• How to harvest water from thin air

You’ll also see exactly how the Amish bury food, preserve meat with honey, and use plants most folks call “weeds” to treat everything from migraines to infections. These aren’t theories—they’re time-tested methods passed down for generations.

Remember that Eddie doesn’t just teach these skills—he lives them!

Final Thoughts on Burying Food Like the Amish

Keeping a buried stash of food, ammo, firearms, and medical supplies is a wise move in any preparedness strategy. Not only is it a handy way to store surplus food items. It also gives you a backup stash if your primary supplies are compromised.

Ultimately, the Amish don’t bury their food out of nostalgia. They do it because it works. Their methods have stood the test of time, winter, and recessions. So, whether you build a full-blown root cellar or start small with a buried bin of potatoes and apples, you’re tapping into a tradition that’s both practical and safe.

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The post This is Why the Amish Bury Their Food first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

Many people think they can survive off-grid until they’re forced to live without power for a week. By day three, the food’s spoiling, the generator’s running on fumes, and tempers are boiling. But the Amish? They’ve been doing it for generations! No drama, no panic. As a prepper, that made me wonder: what do they know that I don’t… and would it keep me alive when SHTF?

For years, I devoured books and other ressources on off-grid living, but I kept feeling like something was missing. Recently, I stumbled on a video course teaching authentic Amish survival techniques – the stuff this community uses day to day to live without a GRID.

What caught my attention is that the teacher is a former Amish. Eddie Swartzentruber, was born and raised in one of the strictest Amish communities.

He says: ‘If a blackout or EMP hits, the Amish keep going while the world falls apart. That really hit home, especially since I’m more serious about preparing for a long-term blackout than anything else.. So I thought what the hell, let’s give it a shot – and signed up for The Amish Ways Academy.

Signing Up and First Impressions

The cost was fair, especially with the discount I managed to snag (from what I can see, it’s still available here, but I’m not really sure for how long, to be fair).

Within minutes, I had the video links and bonus eBooks in my inbox. One of them, a course summary, turned out to be perfect for following along with Eddie.

The others dive deep into Amish home remedies, the way they use medicinal plants, and other wisdon they’ve passed down for generations.

The core course is around three hours of HD video, breaking down over 45 Amish skills in bite-sized segments. Perfect for those who want to learnwithout overload.

It’s a kind of “just grab what fits your stockpile or homestead” kind of thing.

I spread the course over a week, diving in for about 25-30 minutes each evening after work. The short, focused segments made it easy to absorb each Amish skill or method without feeling rushed.

Some evenings I was too tired to even think about learning, but the short segments made it doable.

I’d watch, jot a few notes, and sometimes test a tip right away (like the egg preservation method involving salt) just to see if it really worked.

And it did.

The Egg Preservation Test: What Actually Happened

Since I mentioned testing the egg preservation method right away, let me give you the full picture rather than leaving it at “it worked.”

The method Eddie demonstrates uses a salt brine solution — one part non-iodized salt dissolved in five parts water — to submerge unwashed, fresh eggs in a sealed container. The key detail Eddie emphasizes is that the eggs must be unwashed and as fresh as possible, because the natural bloom on the shell is what makes the preservation work. Store-bought eggs that have already been washed will not last as long.

I sourced a dozen fresh eggs directly from a neighbor who keeps chickens, submerged them in the brine in a large mason jar, sealed it, and stored it in a cool dark corner of my basement.

At the four-week mark I cracked one open. Yolk firm, whites clear, no smell. Completely normal.

At eight weeks I tested another. Still good — slightly firmer white than fresh, but nothing that would stop you from eating it or cooking with it.

I have two eggs still sitting in that jar right now at the eleven-week mark. I will crack one open this weekend. Based on what Eddie says in the course, properly brined eggs stored in cool conditions can last up to a year. I am not there yet but based on what I have seen so far, I have zero reason to doubt it.

The method costs almost nothing and requires zero electricity. For a prepper focused on long-term food security, that is hard to argue with.

What You Actually Learn

Right from the get-go, I really appreciated how practical and grounded Eddie’s approach is. His voice is a bit hard to understand at times, as he still has an Amish accent, but on the other hand there are subtitles through every segment plus the written bonus that follows the videos. So there isn’t a problem. As someone focused on prepping, I found the food and preservation sections especially valuable.

They go into detail on storing eggs without refrigeration, making shelf-stable meals from basic ingredients, and turning simple items into long-lasting staples. It’s the kind of knowledge that matters when TEOTWAWKI hits, even if it’s not glamorous.

The course covers basics like making butter, lard, and tallow, as well as recipes like Molasses Pie, Poor Man’s Steak, Friendship Bread, Head Cheese, and Scrapple. Eddie also demonstrates storage methods, from mini-root cellars to electricity-free fridges, and a device that pulls water from thin air.

Which I actually tried and it kind of reminded me of The Water Freedom System, except it’s not THAT efficient. It works but takes patience and doesn’t produce tons, so it’s better used as a backup.

The Water Device: What It Actually Is and What to Expect

Since this is probably the most intriguing claim in the entire course, it deserves a more honest explanation than “it works but takes patience.”

What Eddie demonstrates is an atmospheric water generator built from basic materials — essentially a system that uses temperature differentials to condense moisture from the surrounding air into drinkable water. The Amish version uses no electricity. It relies on natural airflow, metal surfaces that cool overnight, and a collection trough that channels the condensed water into a container.

The output is modest. In the conditions I tested it — a humid evening in late summer — it produced roughly half a cup of water overnight. On a drier night it produced less. On a very humid night it did slightly better.

To be straight with you: this is not a primary water source. Eddie himself does not present it that way. It is a supplemental method — useful during a short-term tap outage, a minor drought, or as a last resort when other water sources are compromised. If you are expecting to pull gallons per day from thin air, you will be disappointed.

What makes it genuinely valuable is the concept and the cost. The materials to build it are either free or nearly free, and the skill of understanding how to harvest atmospheric moisture is one most preppers have never thought about. Combined with the rainwater collection and cistern methods Eddie covers elsewhere in the course, it becomes part of a layered water strategy rather than a standalone solution.

Realistic expectation: treat it as a backup to your backup. In that context it earns its place.

Gardening, livestock, and natural remedies are handled with the same hands-on focus. You learn how to improve soil, maintain a year-round greenhouse, raise healthy chickens, and make medicinal preparations that don’t rely on stores or pharmacies.

The bartering section shows how to turn everyday skills and items into real survival value, like backyard smokehouses or durable cookware. It’s realistic guidance for anyone wanting more independence off-grid.

The parts that I liked the most were probably:

• The Amish Burger In A Jar – which they describe as portable, protein-packed, and long-lasting for bug-out bags.
• The Great Depression Broth – this is basically a whole very nutritious meal from scraps you’d normally throw out.
• 20+Electricity-Free Ways To Preserve Eggs – I mean this really stretches the lifespan of eggs far beyond the fridge.
• The Amish Device That Produces Water Out of Thin Air – handy for a minor drought or when taps run dry for a short while.

A Closer Look at One Skill: The Amish Burger In A Jar

Since 45 skills is a lot to visualize, let me walk you through one of them in detail so you get a real sense of how Eddie teaches.

The Amish Burger In A Jar is essentially pressure-canned ground beef — cooked, seasoned, and sealed in mason jars for long-term storage without refrigeration. The finished jars are shelf-stable for up to two years and can be eaten straight from the jar cold or heated quickly over any heat source, including a campfire.

Here is what the process looks like as Eddie teaches it:

You start by browning ground beef with basic seasonings — salt, pepper, and optionally onion powder. Eddie is specific about draining as much fat as possible at this stage because excess fat shortens shelf life and can compromise the seal.

The cooked beef is then packed tightly into sterilized mason jars, leaving about an inch of headspace. A small amount of beef broth is added to each jar to keep the meat moist during the canning process and add flavor.

The jars go into a pressure canner — Eddie spends time here explaining exactly why pressure canning is non-negotiable for meat, and what happens if you try to water-bath can protein instead. This is the kind of safety detail that most YouTube tutorials skip and that could genuinely save your life.

Processing time is 75 minutes for pint jars at the correct pressure level, adjusted for altitude.

The result is a protein-packed, portable, fully cooked meal that needs nothing — no fridge, no freezer, no electricity. Eddie suggests making a dozen jars at a time during a weekend session and rotating them into your bug-out bag or long-term pantry.

What I appreciated about this segment specifically was that Eddie makes mistakes on camera and corrects them in real time. It felt like learning from someone who actually does this, not someone performing for a camera.

What You Actually Need to Apply These Skills

One thing the course does not spell out upfront is what tools and supplies you will need to put these skills into practice. Based on my own experience working through the material, here is an honest list so you can assess what you already have and what you might need to source:

For food preservation:

• A pressure canner — this is the most significant investment if you do not already own one. A basic model runs between 80 and 120 dollars. It is non-negotiable for safely canning meat and low-acid foods
• Mason jars in various sizes — pint and quart jars are used most frequently throughout the course
• Non-iodized salt and basic pantry staples — most preservation recipes use ingredients you likely already have
• A cool, dark storage space — a basement corner works perfectly

For water skills:

• Basic metal sheeting or salvaged metal surfaces for the atmospheric collector
• A collection container — any food-safe bucket or large jar works
• Access to a clean rainwater source if you want to build on the cistern methods

For natural remedies:

• Activated charcoal, raw honey, coconut oil, and turmeric are the most frequently used ingredients across multiple recipes — worth stocking in bulk
• Small glass jars for storing finished remedies
• A basic kitchen scale for accurate measurements

For gardening and soil work:

• Composted manure — available at most garden centers or free from local farms
• Wood ash — free if you have a fireplace or know someone who does
• Basic hand tools — Eddie’s methods require no powered equipment

For heating projects:

• Cinder blocks and metal flue pipe for the starter rocket heater build
• Firebricks if you want to build the full version

Most of these are either already in a prepared household or easily sourced locally for low cost. The pressure canner is the only item that requires a meaningful upfront investment, and it pays for itself quickly if you use it regularly.

The Quiz and The Diploma: A Clever Touch

Wrapping up the course is a short quiz designed to lock in the lessons. You can retake it as many times as needed until you pass, which is perfect for reinforcing what you’ve learned without having to rewatch every single video.

I really appreciated this . Instead of just nodding along, you’re forced to think through how you’d actually apply the skills you’re learning for water purification, food storage, bartering or something else.

Let me tell you something: you kind of need to pay attention. I took the quiz a couple of times before I passed.

There was a small problem for me: you need to score 20 out of 20 to actually pass so they’re taking who they’re giving the diploma to seriously.

I messed up on preservation questions because I didn’t take enough notes. Lesson learned!

The great news is that you’ll get a diploma as soon as you finally make it (you can see mine below). Or maybe you’re just smarter and more focused than me and you get it right from the first time!

The Good

Here’s the best part: throughout his Amish Ways course, Eddie teaches you about stuff that you can actually use. Eddie doesn’t waste time at all on textbook survival tips. Everything is rooted in his real-life experience living with his Amish family. Here are other PROs:

• Bite-sized, hands-on demos – straight to actionable steps.
• Broad coverage – food, water, health, barter – all grid-independent.
• Video plus eBooks – watch, read, or reference on the go.
• Evergreen skills – no tech dependencies, built for collapse.

SPECIAL DISCOUNT HERE!

What I Have Actually Done Since Finishing the Course

A review that stops at “I watched it and liked it” is not very useful. So here is what I have actually put into practice since completing the Academy, and how it went.

• Egg preservation in brine: Done and tested — see the full breakdown earlier in this review. This is now a permanent part of my food prep routine. I keep a rotating jar going at all times.
• The Great Depression Broth: Made this twice now. The first time I used vegetable scraps — onion skins, carrot tops, celery ends — that I had been collecting in a freezer bag for two weeks. Simmered for three hours with salt and a bay leaf. The result was a genuinely nutritious, deeply flavored broth that I pressure-canned into four pint jars. Zero cost, zero waste, four meals worth of nutrition from scraps I would have thrown out. The second batch I added chicken bones left from a roast. Even better.
• Soil improvement using the Amish layering method: I applied the composted manure and wood ash layering technique Eddie describes to one of my raised beds before the last growing season. Compared to my other beds, that bed produced noticeably better — fuller plants, more consistent yield, less watering needed. I am now applying it to all my beds this season.
• The rocket mass heater: I have not built a full one yet — it requires more time and materials than I have committed so far — but I have built the small test version Eddie shows in the course using cinder blocks and a metal flue pipe. It works. The heat output from a small amount of wood is genuinely impressive and it convinced me the full build is worth doing this autumn.
• Natural remedies: I made the drawing salve and have used it twice — once on a minor infected splinter and once on an insect bite that had swollen up. Both times it worked faster than I expected. I now keep a small jar in my first aid kit permanently.

Not everything stuck on the first try. The butter-making took me three attempts to get right — mostly because I was not using cream with a high enough fat content. But that is the nature of real skills. They take practice. The course gives you the foundation; the reps are up to you.

The Not-So-Good

I wished the course went a little deeper into Amish social dynamics. How do they handle community disputes, stay informed during a crisis, or make decisions as a group? That kind of insight could be a game-changer when you’re trying to build your own survival community or group.

Some topics could also use more depth. Three hours of video is packed with info, but some areas, like cold-climate greenhouse tips, aren’t covered in great detail. But the bonus eBooks and a bit of experimentation will bridge the gap for sure.

Another thing to keep in mind is resource sourcing. Eddie shows you how to do a lot with limited, local materials, but if you don’t live near farmland or forests, figuring out where to get the right supplies can take some extra hustle. Still, with all the practical tips and bonuses, I think it’s a solid investment…

Who This Course Is For — and Who It Is Not

Before you decide whether to sign up, it helps to know if this is the right fit for your situation.

This course is for you if:

• You are serious about prepping for long-term grid-down scenarios, particularly extended blackouts or supply chain collapse
• You want practical, hands-on skills taught by someone who actually lived them, not a former military instructor recycling the same survival tropes
• You are a beginner to intermediate prepper looking to fill gaps in food storage, water sourcing, and natural remedies
• You prefer learning through video demonstration rather than reading manuals
• You have at least some outdoor or storage space to apply what you learn — a backyard, a basement, or a small plot of land

This course is probably not for you if:

• You are an experienced homesteader who has already mastered canning, food preservation, and off-grid water systems — you may find the pace too introductory
• You live in a small apartment with no storage or outdoor space — several of the core skills require room to apply
• You are looking for tactical survival training — weapons, security, escape routes — this course does not cover any of that
• You want deep community or social dynamics content — the Amish communal decision-making and crisis communication side of things is largely absent, which is a real gap
• You need instant results — some skills like brine preservation and greenhouse growing require weeks or months to see the payoff

The sweet spot for this course is the prepper who has the basics covered — some food storage, a bug-out bag — but wants to move beyond stockpiling and into actual self-sufficient living skills.

Final Verdict

Most people find out the hard way that self-reliance isn’t optional. The Amish have known that for centuries and live accordingly.

The Amish Ways Academy will teach you useful skills but it also gives you a glimpse into a way of life that works when everything else stops. As far as I’ve experienced, this is the closest thing to stepping into the Amish world without leaving home.

I’ve tried a lot of resources, and this one felt genuine and practical. It’s not flawless, but its limits are far outweighed by its value.

One thing’s for sure: now I know I can store eggs for months without a fridge, make meals that last for years without electricity, and pull drinking water out of the air around.

And That’s a level of independence I didn’t have before.

If you’re curious about real Amish methods and skills, it’s worth checking out.. Here is the link where I joined the academy in case you want to see for yourself The Amish Ways Academy.

Look, I have a confession to make. Right after I went through the Academy, I decided to dive deeper into Eddie’s work and even ordered The Amish Ways Book, which is also written by him. Phenomenal book, for real! Great insight, and some of the information inside wasn’t covered in the Academy. I don’t regret for a second getting both, because they complement each other nicely.

Academy vs. Book: Which One Should You Get First?

Since I have now gone through both, here is an honest breakdown to help you decide where to start — or whether you need both at all.

The Amish Ways Academy is video-first and skill-first. It is built around watching Eddie demonstrate techniques in real time, which is invaluable for anything hands-on — canning, building the water device, preparing medicinal remedies. The visual format makes complex processes much easier to follow than written instructions alone. If you are the kind of person who learns by watching and doing, start here.

The Amish Ways Book goes deeper on philosophy, context, and the reasoning behind each practice. It covers some skills the Academy does not touch, particularly around financial habits, resource management, and the Amish approach to community resilience. If you want to understand the mindset behind the methods — not just the methods themselves — the book adds a layer the course does not.

Where they overlap: Both cover food preservation, medicinal plants, and off-grid systems, but from different angles. The course shows you how to do it. The book explains why the Amish have done it this way for generations. Together they reinforce each other in a way that neither does alone.

My honest recommendation: If budget is a concern, start with the Academy. The video format delivers more practical value faster. Add the book when you can — it will deepen everything you already learned and fill in the gaps.

If budget is not a concern, get both at the same time and use the course summary eBook to cross-reference as you go.

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When outsiders hear that Amish women sometimes have all their teeth removed at a young age, the first reaction is usually shock. But the real story behind this practice isn’t about strange rituals or hidden rules—it’s about health, cost, and survival in a community that does things differently. The Amish live by values of simplicity and practicality, and that extends to how they approach medicine and dentistry.

For many people, the idea of losing teeth early feels extreme, even unnecessary. But if you lived without insurance, had limited access to care, and faced the heavy financial burden of modern dental treatments, you might make the same choice. For Amish women, removing their teeth often feels like the smartest option in a world where “prevention” and “treatment” don’t always line up with reality.

The High Price of Dental Care

Dental care in America is notoriously expensive. A single filling can cost more than a week’s worth of groceries, and a root canal can set a family back hundreds—sometimes thousands—of dollars. For most Amish families, that kind of expense simply isn’t possible. Unlike many of us, they don’t have employer insurance, credit cards, or government aid to soften the blow.

Related: Natural Remedies From The Amish

Instead of stretching the budget with repeated treatments, many Amish women take the permanent route: extraction. By removing teeth instead of patching them, they avoid the cycle of constant appointments, unpredictable bills, and the fear of infection spreading when untreated cavities worsen. To them, it’s not about giving up—it’s about making the most cost-effective choice in a system stacked against them.

The Amish are also practical by nature. They don’t tend to invest in cosmetic fixes like whitening or crowns, which outsiders value. To them, teeth serve a function, and if that function is compromised, replacement with dentures makes more sense than pouring money into temporary fixes. In a way, the removal of teeth reflects a different set of priorities: utility over appearance.

How to Take Care of Your Teeth Naturally

But maybe you’re not like the Amish. Maybe you want to keep your own teeth.

In this case, the easiest way to avoid paying a fortune for dental care is prevention. Brushing your teeth is the most important thing you can do to take care of them. Doing this alone is one of the greatest ways to avoid cavities and teeth extractions caused by them.

The only problem is that many people avoid brushing their teeth because they don’t like the idea of chemicals in their toothpaste.

Well, this should stop being a problem because you can make your own 100% natural toothpaste at home. For your gums, the most important thing is the physical act of brushing. Aiding that with natural ingredients is a bonus.

This baking soda and calendula-based toothpaste is perfect for anyone looking for a replacement for traditional toothpaste.

Also, you don’t need to stop here. You can also make homemade mouthwash. This one is made from a powerful blend of organic essential oils such as peppermint oil, tea tree oil, and clove bud oil.

Using both of them can help your teeth stay healthy for longer and the best part is that everything is DIY, so you know what they’re made of.

👉 Click here to get the complete bundle of natural recipes 

Preventing Future Problems

Once tooth decay starts, it rarely stops. Amish women, who balance heavy workloads with caring for large families, don’t always have the luxury of running to a dentist every time something hurts. Instead of constantly fighting cavities and gum issues, they often choose a permanent solution before things spiral. Early removal can prevent infections that might otherwise spread and cause even more serious health complications.

Related: Canning $5 Amish Stew

There’s also the reality that many Amish households live far from urban centers where dental specialists are available. Even if they were willing to pay, getting there repeatedly may not be practical. Pulling teeth early and replacing them with dentures provides certainty—it ends the cycle before it begins.

This choice is not made lightly. Many Amish women understand that removing teeth can change how they eat, speak, or smile. But when the alternative is years of pain, multiple costly procedures, and the risk of untreated infections, dentures become a kind of long-term insurance against suffering. It’s a decision rooted not in vanity but in survival.

Dentures as a Lifeline

For outsiders, dentures may seem like a last resort. But for Amish women, they’re often seen as a lifeline. Once the teeth are gone, so is the pain, the infection risk, and the constant uncertainty about what problem might crop up next. Dentures restore chewing ability, making it possible to maintain nutrition without worrying about teeth breaking down meal after meal.

Dentures also bring peace of mind. Unlike the unpredictability of natural teeth that can decay at any time, dentures are dependable. They don’t require fillings, and they don’t rot. This sense of stability is invaluable to women who already juggle many responsibilities and don’t need another ongoing worry added to their daily lives.

While dentures can sometimes be uncomfortable or require adjustments, they represent freedom from years of dental issues. To many Amish women, that trade is worth it. They’d rather deal with the occasional annoyance of false teeth than the endless cycle of decay and repair that modern dentistry demands.

Limited Access to Dentists

Living in rural areas comes with its own set of challenges. For Amish communities, dentists may be miles away, and transportation isn’t as simple as jumping in a car. Even when services are within reach, repeated visits aren’t always feasible for families who rely on horse-drawn buggies or community transportation. This makes a one-time extraction more practical than constant travel for ongoing treatments.

Some Amish communities rely on local “Amish dentists” or sympathetic non-Amish practitioners who perform extractions at a lower cost. While this might sound unusual to outsiders, it reflects the reality of adapting to limited resources. These extractions may not always follow the same standards as professional dental offices, but they’re accessible, affordable, and—most importantly—final.

The combination of rural isolation and limited finances creates an environment where preventative care just isn’t realistic. Amish women face a choice: live with untreated pain, or remove the problem entirely. In most cases, practicality wins, and extraction becomes the logical solution.

The Sad Truth

So why do Amish women remove their teeth? Because it’s often the only health decision that makes sense. It’s affordable compared to endless treatments, it prevents future problems before they start, and it restores functionality through dentures. For many, it’s the most reliable way to escape pain and regain stability in daily life.

Related: Amish Lessons That Prepare You For Living Off The Grid

The sad truth is that what looks extreme to us is, for them, a path toward relief. This isn’t about ritual or punishment—it’s about managing health with the limited resources available. By pulling teeth early, Amish women avoid years of pain, uncertainty, and debt.

In the end, this practice isn’t a sign of neglect—it’s a reflection of how different communities adapt to challenges. In a society where simplicity and practicality are guiding values, removing teeth becomes less about loss and more about freedom. It’s not the choice most of us would make, but in the Amish world, it’s one of the few options that truly works.

Take Control the Amish Way

If you’ve ever wanted to take control of your life the way the Amish do—living simpler, healthier, and more independent—you’ll find answers in The Amish Ways. This book reveals the practical side of Amish living: how they preserve food without electricity, treat common illnesses with natural remedies, and build a lifestyle where resilience comes first.

Get Your Copy of the Amish Ways Book Here! – 76% Discount

👉 Discover the hidden knowledge of America’s most self-reliant community

What shocks outsiders about Amish life often hides lessons worth learning. The way Amish women handle dental health is just one example of how practicality drives their decisions. But that practicality stretches far beyond teeth. They’ve built systems for food preservation that keep pantries stocked for years, remedies that soothe pain without a pharmacy, and self-sufficient practices that don’t depend on the grid.

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The post Why Do Amish Women Remove Their Teeth? The Sad Truth Behind The Practice first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

Unlock the secrets of sustainable living with insights straight from the Amish playbook. In this revealing article, we’ll explore 12 time-tested farming techniques that have powered Amish self-reliance for generations—methods so potent they were deemed too dangerous to share outside of their community.

While you might know some of them, few people know all 12 secrets presented below.

Companion Planting

The Amish are masters of companion planting, which involves growing certain plants together because they help each other out. A classic example is the “Three Sisters” method of planting corn, beans, and squash together. Corn gives beans something to climb, beans return nitrogen to the soil, and squash covers the ground to keep weeds down and moisture in.

You can adopt companion planting to get more from your garden space, increase yields, and cut back on the need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

You can use these simple Amish companion planting techniques to boost your harvest and get twice as much food from the same small space, without any extra work. Read all about them right here.

Horse-Powered Agriculture

The Amish mostly rely on horses for plowing fields and moving goods around. While many modern farms use tractors and machinery, the Amish stick to horse-drawn equipment for planting and harvesting. In a long-term crisis where fuel might be scarce or too expensive, horse-powered farming becomes a practical alternative.

If you’re prepping for tough times, it’s worth getting familiar with animal-powered methods and manual tools. Even if you don’t have access to horses, learning to use tools like hoes, scythes, and wheelbarrows will help you keep your garden or small farm going without modern machinery.

Organic Crop Rotation

Amish farmers prioritize keeping their soil healthy by practicing crop rotation. This old-school technique involves planting different crops in the same spot over time to avoid draining the soil of nutrients. For example, they might plant corn one year, then switch to beans the next to add nitrogen back into the soil. Crop rotation also helps control pests naturally, cutting down on the need for chemical fertilizers.

You can use this method to keep your soil fertile and productive year after year. This approach is especially useful when you can’t rely on synthetic fertilizers, ensuring your garden thrives long-term. I first learned about it from the Amish Ways book. Honestly, I wish more people knew about it; it’s a game-changer for any homesteader.

Heirloom Seeds

The Amish prefer heirloom seeds because they’re hardy, flavorful, and can reproduce naturally. This is not necessarily one of the Amish farming secrets since it is known by farmers of all kinds but the Amish do tend to use it more. Unlike hybrid seeds, which are often sterile or unreliable for future planting, heirloom seeds can be saved and used year after year.

For homesteaders, stocking up on heirloom seeds and learning how to properly save them is a smart move. Not only does it reduce dependency on commercial seed companies, but it also helps preserve biodiversity and provides a steady food supply during extended crises.

Homegrown Herbal Medicine

Many Amish families grow medicinal herbs like echinacea, chamomile, and comfrey, which they use to treat common ailments. You can benefit from growing your own medicinal herbs as well. Learning how to harvest, dry, and prepare these herbs can be a lifesaver when conventional medicine isn’t available.

Amish households often keep a small “herb corner” where they grow plants for everyday ailments. They carefully dry herbs like yarrow to stop minor bleeding, lavender to calm anxiety, and peppermint to ease stomach discomfort. Instead of reaching for store-bought medicine, they make simple remedies like infused oils, teas, and poultices. By observing these practices, you can learn how to use your own garden to address common health issues naturally, just like the Amish have done for generations.

I found a great kit with 4,818 high-quality, NON-GMO seeds packaged in the US, that you can turn into hundreds of powerful natural remedies without spending a dime at the pharmacy anymore. It contains one plant for every part of your body – you’ll find a painkiller, an anti-inflammatory, an anti-parasitic, and even some plants that can help people with diabetes and autoimmune disorders. It’s called the Medicinal Garden Kit and you can find it here. But you might wanna hurry, cause it’s that good it’s usually sold out.

Community-Centered Farming

One of the biggest strengths of Amish life is their sense of community. They share resources, labor, and knowledge to help each other out, whether it’s for harvesting crops or building a barn. This collective effort allows them to thrive without modern conveniences. You can learn a lot from this mindset by building networks with like-minded people. Sharing tools, trading crops, or pitching in on large projects creates a support system that’s invaluable when things get tough.

Simple Irrigation

The Amish often use gravity-fed irrigation or rainwater collection to water their crops. By capturing rainwater in barrels or cisterns, they can keep their fields irrigated without the need for modern plumbing or electric pumps. You can adopt these methods to ensure a steady water supply for their gardens during dry spells, without relying on the grid.

Even if you have zero experience in this area, your task becomes incredibly simple with this backpack-sized water generator. It’s a truly groundbreaking solution that gives you access to a device capable of producing over 40 gallons of water per day. Out of thin air!

Using Cover Crops

To keep their soil in good shape, the Amish often plant cover crops like clover, rye, or alfalfa after the main growing season. These crops help prevent erosion, smother weeds, and add organic matter back into the soil. In the spring, cover crops are tilled into the ground, boosting the soil’s fertility for the next round of planting.

For homesteaders, adopting this practice is a great way to extend the life of your garden and keep your soil healthy, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers and maintaining a steady food supply even in difficult times.

Livestock Integration

Amish farms often integrate livestock like chickens, cows, and pigs into their farming systems. These animals provide manure, which helps fertilize the crops, while crop leftovers are fed to the animals, creating a cycle where nothing goes to waste.

You can follow this example of Amish farming secrets by raising small livestock, such as chickens or rabbits, to provide both food and natural fertilizer. Even if you’re in a suburban setting, a few chickens can make a big difference in how self-sufficient you are.

Minimal Technology Reliance

One of the most impressive things about Amish farming is how little it relies on modern technology. By working without tractors, irrigation systems, or chemical pesticides, the Amish have created systems that are resilient to power outages or fuel shortages.

Homesteaders can benefit from learning similar low-tech techniques, like using hand tools, setting up rainwater collection systems, and practicing natural pest control. By reducing your reliance on external inputs, you’ll be more prepared for disruptions to the grid or supply chains. You can learn how to create your own pressurized rainwater collecting system using nothing but some blue barrels from this guide.

Home-Made Compost

The Amish understand the value of composting. They turn manure, food scraps, and plant waste into rich soil that keeps their crops thriving. You can do the same by setting up compost piles or bins on your homestead. This provides a continuous source of natural fertilizer, which is critical in a world where store-bought options might not always be available.

Related: Vermicomposting: A Simple Way to Turn Scraps Into Black Gold

Root Cellaring for Preservation

The Amish have long perfected the art of food preservation without relying on modern refrigeration, notably through the use of root cellars—cool, underground spaces that keep produce fresh for extended periods.

Related: Ingenious Ways to Freeze-Dry Your Food at Home for 10+ Years Shelf Life

A well-designed underground cellar, such as the one described in The Easy Cellar, offers exactly that kind of protection. Built a few feet beneath your backyard, this discreet shelter can store enough food, water, and essential supplies to sustain you and your family for several months. Inspired by traditional root cellars used by our ancestors, this modern design has been improved to provide far greater security, similar to a small-scale bunker. Importantly, it also offers a significant layer of defense against an EMP strike, shielding your critical supplies and providing a refuge when all electronic systems fail.

Not only does it serve as a food storage solution, but it also functions as a storm shelter, offering protection during natural disasters. Even better, this shelter is very affordable. You can build it for under $400 and complete it in less than a week, entirely on your own, without the need for expensive contractors or specialized equipment.

Learn More Amish Secrets

Many of these powerful tips come straight from The Amish Ways Book –  a rare, physical guide packed with hundreds of proven survival strategies rooted in Amish tradition.

In the book, you’ll also find many other secret Amish tips and techniques that could save your life in a crisis.

For the first time ever, this 200-year-old wisdom is available in a beautifully made hardcover edition, authored by Eddie Swartzentruber, a man who spent 16 years living within the Amish community and learning their way of life first-hand. You can grab your own copy today and claim 3 FREE BONUSES using my exclusive 76% discount coupon right here.

These time-honored techniques have helped the Amish thrive off-grid and remain resilient in the face of societal collapse. Don’t wait for disaster to strike. Start mastering these skills today!

Here’s how you can make Bread in a Jar!

Final Thoughts

Incorporating Amish farming techniques into your preparedness plans can significantly enhance your self-sufficiency and resilience.

We invite you to share your thoughts and experiences. Have you implemented any of these Amish farming secrets? What challenges or successes have you encountered on your journey toward self-reliance? Your insights could inspire and assist others in our community. Please leave your comments below.

The article was first published on askaprepper.com

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They’ve literally spent centuries mastering the art of living a simple life from what the land gives them. This goes beyond a secretly impressive skill set to include strategies for stocking supplies to help them weather just about any situation.

While getting stuck behind one of their horse-drawn carts can be frustrating on the highway, you shouldn’t let that trick you into thinking they’re unwise. You can learn a lot from them by interpreting what they keep stored and what they don’t.

Commercially Canned, Packaged, and Processed Foods

The Amish never store canned, pre-packaged, or processed foods from stores. Yet this goes beyond them merely shunning modern technology and convenience. Processed foods and even canned meals have much lower nutrient value than the scratch cooking the Amish live by.

If you tried to live completely off canned and pre-processed foods, you’d gradually start to develop vitamin and mineral deficiencies that would impact your health. To prevent this, you’d need to include a daily multivitamin.

Canned and processed foods also tend to have insanely high sodium levels. Living off them would increase your risk of high blood pressure, kidney damage, and heart disease.

The Homesteading Alternative

Rather than storing processed foods, the Amish prefer to cook from scratch using fresh, homegrown vegetables, meats, and whole-food ingredients. That’s not to say they don’t stock food for storage. The Amish preserve their fruits, vegetables, and other foods through canning, drying/dehydrating, and an artisanal style of fermenting.

Natural fermentation, in particular, is worth learning from them. Not only does it preserve much of the original nutrient value of the food, but it also gives it probiotic qualities that improve gut health and boost the immune system.

I was curious to see what foods the Amish preserve and if the recipes are any different from the ones my grandma taught me, so I managed to grab a copy of the Amish Ways book. What I discovered was fascinating—these time-honored methods are still thriving, preserving not just food but also the knowledge of our ancestors.

These traditional preservation techniques are vital, especially when electricity isn’t an option. Many of the foods prepared this way have been forgotten with the convenience of modern technology, but they remain a cornerstone of Amish life. In the next crisis, when most of us might face a world without power, these methods and recipes will become invaluable.

So, instead of relying on expensive, unhealthy, and nutrient-deprived survival foods, wouldn’t you be better off building a blackout-proof food stockpile inspired by what our great-grandparents kept in their pantries?

Why The Amish Never Stockpile Chemical Cleaning Supplies

Even if they were cheap and easily available, the Amish wouldn’t stockpile commercial cleaning products. This isn’t just about avoiding modernity but also about avoiding chemicals in their clean lifestyles.

Chemical residue can do more than just smell bad for a few minutes after cleaning. Some leave traces that transfer to food or affect respiratory health.

The Homesteading Alternative

Instead of commercial cleaning products, the Amish use natural options like vinegar and biodegradable homemade soaps.

They also use baking soda to clean grime and deodorize areas. Baking soda mixed with vinegar or water creates a paste that cleans effectively. Scientifically, the microscopic nucleation sites on baking soda granules trap bacteria and unwanted organic compounds, cleaning and deodorizing as well as many chemical-based products.

Why The Amish Never Stockpile Electronics and Digital Technology

The Amish abstain from electronics and don’t store digital technology or the batteries they run on. This goes beyond rejecting modernity and stems from their deeply rooted philosophy of “Gemeinschaft,” which values interpersonal relationships, community strength, and mutual support.

One could argue modern technology overemphasizes individualism, weakening community bonds.

The Homesteading Alternative

The Gemeinschaft philosophy reinforces the Amish community support network. If someone has a problem, neighbors are quick to help. They don’t need to make emergency calls because they’re never alone during a crisis.

Amish communities avoid distractions like internet memes or political outrage from afar. Instead, they focus on in-person connections, entertainment, and engagement.

Jewelry, Affectations, and Fashion Accessories 

The plain attire and lack of jewelry among the Amish aren’t due to finances but to their religious value of modesty. They avoid storing jewelry and high-fashion items to prevent fostering envy in others.

The Homesteading Alternative

By avoiding flashy items, they promote community harmony and save money for more important needs. If you applied this to your own life, think how much more you could invest in homesteading supplies and essentials by wearing simpler clothes and driving a basic car.

Why The Amish Never Stockpile OTC and Prescription Medications

The Amish use prescription medications only when absolutely necessary and don’t store OTC pharmaceuticals. They are selective about modern medicines but won’t refuse them in acute or severe health issues.

The Amish are cautious about overusing modern medicines, including OTC options like antibiotics and painkillers, due to side effects and dependency risks.

The Homesteading Alternative

One of the best things I learned from the Amish is how they brew their own version of ibuprofen. It’s a natural remedy made from a few backyard plants, and it works wonders for everything from headaches to sore muscles. The best part? These plants are probably growing right outside your door.

The Amish are all about using natural remedies, and they grow their own medicinal herbs to keep in stock. They also understand the power of fever, seeing it as a natural way for the body to fight off illness. Unlike modern methods that rush to reduce fevers and can weaken your immune system, the Amish let their bodies do the work, helping them avoid the cycle of relying on antibiotics.

Why The Amish Never Stockpile Electric Hand Tools

The Amish never stockpile power tools and their batteries, not just because of technology but due to religious and practical reasons. They find power tools imprecise and believe they weaken the relationship between the craftsman and their work.

A power drill might make an error that wastes a board, whereas Amish craftsmen carefully use hand tools, creating precise, lasting work with little waste.

The Homesteading Alternative

Some Amish communities use steam-powered tools for bulk work, but finer carpentry and home repairs rely on hand tools.

For homesteaders, it’s important to own and master high-quality hand tools. Waiting until batteries die in a prolonged disaster could set you back on critical projects.

Related: Homesteading Lessons I Learned from the Amish

When you look at what the Amish don’t store, it starts to make sense, especially if your homesteading strategy focuses on long-term survival.

The Amish never stockpile canned and processed foods. Instead, they keep pantries and root cellars filled with home-dried, fermented, and canned goods. These foods have more nutrition, and less sodium, and can sustain them indefinitely.

They also avoid storing electronics, power tools, and batteries, investing instead in community support systems and practical skills.

While the Amish use modern medicine when necessary, they don’t stockpile drugs. Instead, they rely on commonsense remedies that promote stronger immunity.

I’m not saying you need a straw hat and suspenders to live this way. But the next time a horse and buggy slow you down, remember that the driver isn’t backward. If you meet them at a fair or store, they might just share some wisdom worth learning.

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The post Why The Amish Never Stockpile These Homesteading Items first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

Experts have estimated that a year without power could lead to a 90% mortality rate in modern populations. The truth is, that most people today have no idea how to live without electricity. The loss of heat, air conditioning, lighting, and cooking appliances would make survival much more difficult.

However, there’s one group in modern society that has chosen to live without electricity—the Amish. For centuries, they’ve preserved food, lit their homes, worked the land, and cooked their meals without relying on power.

They use human labor, hand tools, wood stoves, and animal power to live comfortably. For those looking to thrive through long-term power outages, the Amish can teach us valuable lessons. In this article, we’ll explore the specific skills we can learn from their way of life.

Amish Homesteading Lessons on the Use of Non-Power Tools

One thing you’ll quickly notice about the Amish is how well they care for their tools. I’ll admit, there have been times when I’ve left my tools out in the rain or didn’t put them back in the right place. You’ll never see that in an Amish community.

From a young age, they take pride in their tools and maintain them to a high standard. Their axes, awls, shovels, plows, anvils, and hammers are all kept in excellent condition.

In the Amish way of life, many animals serve as tools, with horses playing a crucial role in farming and transportation. The Amish take great care of these animals, ensuring they live long, healthy lives and perform at their best. Children learn early to saddle and train horses and harness them to plows and wagons.

In Amish communities, horses become part of the family and receive top-notch training, surpassing the care most horses get elsewhere.

One of the biggest challenges for modern homesteaders is the reliance on electricity and technology to run their daily operations. But what if suddenly there was no power? Here’s a complete list of Amish powerless tools for a world without power.

Homeschooling

If you spend any time in the Amish community, you’ll quickly see how much they value their children. Homeschooling is never easy, and it’s even more challenging in a community without the internet.

But the Amish have managed to keep their kids at least one grade level ahead of children their age in the modern world. They also successfully weave religion and farming techniques into their lessons. These children learn not only how to contribute to the farming needs of their community but also gain all the knowledge they need for the future. This dedication to education is one of the Amish homesteading lessons we can all learn from, showing how to balance tradition with essential skills.

Amish Homesteading Lessons in Hand Sewing

Living without electricity means you’ll have to make and repair your own clothes. While many skilled seamstresses exist, few can do much without a sewing machine.

In Amish communities, however, children start learning to sew at a young age. This practice is one of the Amish homesteading lessons. It shows the importance of self-reliance. It also emphasizes passing down practical skills to the next generation.

By the time they’re a few years old, they spool thread, weave cloth, and design and sew their own clothes. They also mend any clothing worn out from hard work on the homestead. Their clothes are durable and built for tough work, with simple fasteners like buttons and Velcro commonly used.

Primitive Farming

Farming is the heart of Amish life, but they do it without the heavy farm equipment that most other homesteaders use. This approach is one of the Amish homesteading lessons, as they rely on horse-drawn tools to grow crops like corn, beans, wheat, hay, barley, potatoes, tomatoes, and grasses for grazing animals.

Much of what they grow is sold to neighboring communities to fund other projects. Crop rotation is key to Amish farming, ensuring the soil always has the nitrogen its crops need.

Related: Natural Remedies From The Amish

An interesting aspect of Amish life is that no one person handles everything alone. Instead, they specialize in different skills and work closely with others in their community. This way, they can quickly get fields worked or even raise a barn in a single day when necessary.

Food Storage and Food Preservation

Some Amish homesteading lessons teach us the value of simple methods for cooking and food preservation. The Amish cook their meals using wood stoves, cast iron skillets, and open fires. They preserve food by canning, pickling, fermenting, and dehydrating, ensuring they have enough to last all year.

They also rely on root cellars to store veggies like potatoes and carrots in a cool, dark place. Additionally, they make homemade jams, jellies, and sauerkraut to keep their meals tasty and nutritious through the winter.

For storing food in small spaces, a non-electric fridge can be a game-changer. This video from the Amish Academy teaches how to make a small, off-grid fridge that keeps food fresh without needing any power.

This isn’t just a root cellar—it’s a real fridge that can store meat, dairy, and even temperature-sensitive items, even in extreme heat. In tight spaces or during a blackout, this kind of Amish invention could be a lifesaver. It’s perfect for those wanting to preserve perishable items without relying on electricity, making it ideal for small homes or off-grid living.

Amish Homesteading Lessons About Plant Identification

As with any homesteader, living off the land requires knowing your plants. It’s crucial to recognize which ones can feed, heal, or harm you. The Amish rely on their farming to provide food, but they’re also well-prepared to live off wild edibles when needed.

From a young age, Amish children learn to walk into the woods and come out with a meal. They can identify trees that are perfect for building, starting fires, or cooking. They also know which trees are ideal for making axe handles or longbows. This knowledge ensures they can survive even if their crops fail. 

The Amish have years of knowledge about wild foods and plants. However, many of us today are disconnected from the land. If a disaster were to strike, would you know how to forage for food in the wild?

The Forager’s Guide to Wild Foods helps bridge that gap, teaching you to identify safe, edible plants and forage for food in nature. This knowledge could be a lifesaver when your stored supplies run low or if you need to rely on the wild for survival.

Simple Amish Life

In the United States, an Amish family lives simply, staying true to their traditions. Amish homes are modest and built for practicality. You’ll often find a chicken coop nearby, providing fresh eggs, and a barn for livestock. In the Amish lifestyle, community is everything.

During a barn raising, Amish men and Amish women work together to build a barn in just one day. This teamwork reflects the heart of Amish culture and how the Amish live, focusing on faith, hard work, and helping each other.

When things take a turn for the worse, the Amish community will hardly be shaken. These resilient people have thrived while staying true to their way of life, resisting the pull of modern society. In many ways, they’ve prepared themselves for a fulfilling life better than most of us.

We can learn so much from their approach. If each of us takes a few lessons from the Amish, and we’ll all be better prepared when challenges arise.

When things take a turn for the worse, the Amish community will hardly be shaken. These resilient people have thrived while staying true to their way of life, resisting the pull of modern society. In many ways, they’ve prepared themselves for a fulfilling life better than most of us.

There’s so much we can learn from their approach. If each of us takes a few lessons from the Amish, we’ll all be better prepared when challenges arise.

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The post Homesteading Lessons I Learned from the Amish first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

One group known for their skill in gathering and maintaining these kinds of supplies is the Amish.

The Amish live a very simple lifestyle, often without electricity or modern technology. Because of this, they’ve developed some unique skills and products that can come in handy during emergencies.

In this article, we’ll look at a few key supplies that could be useful to have on hand, many of which can be found at Amish stores. These items are typically high-quality and built to last.

Hand-Cranked Grain Mills

In an emergency, having access to food is critical.

If the power goes out, many modern appliances won’t work—even if you have a full stock of grains to live on.

This is where hand-cranked grain mills become invaluable. These manual machines let you grind grains into flour without electricity.

The Amish are known for their high-quality, hand-crafted grain mills, often made from durable materials like cast iron. These mills are essential for off-grid living but are also a great option for anyone who wants to make fresh flour at home.

Related: Cut Down On Your Bills In 2024 With These Amish Projects

Mason Jars

Mason jars are incredibly versatile supplies that serve multiple purposes. They’re great for canning, storing dry goods, or even as drinking glasses. Having a stash of mason jars in different sizes can be really beneficial for a homesteader.

They can hold food, water, and even small items like nails or nuts and bolts. While you can find them elsewhere, Amish stores often offer a wide selection of high-quality mason jars in various sizes and styles.

Oil Lamps

When the power goes out—or if you don’t have power to begin with—you’ll need a reliable light source.

Flashlights and candles can be useful, but each has its downsides. Flashlights rely on batteries, which can run out fast if you even have extras on hand. Candles, on the other hand, pose a fire risk.

Oil lamps offer a great alternative—they run on inexpensive, easy-to-store oil and can burn for hours on just one tank. Many Amish stores carry a range of oil lamps, from straightforward designs to more decorative styles, providing a safe and long-lasting light source.

Non-Electric Kitchen Tools

Without power, many modern kitchen tools become useless. However, the Amish have been living without electricity for years. Because of this, they’ve created and developed a variety of kitchen tools that are both functional and durable, requiring no power to operate.

Some examples include hand-cranked blenders, butter churns, apple peelers, mixers, nut roasters, coffee grinders, meat grinders, and juice presses. You can find these tools in nearly any Amish store, and they’re not just useful in emergencies; they’re also great for anyone wanting to embrace a more self-sufficient lifestyle while living off the grid.

Related: 25 Powerless Appliances for Your Homestead Kitchen

Wood Stoves

Eventually, you’ll need a way to heat your space, and doing so without electricity during colder months can be challenging. Gas-powered heaters are one option, but they require a steady supply of fuel, which might be hard to come by in an emergency or if you’re living off the grid for a while.

On the other hand, wood stoves can burn various materials like wood, paper, or cardboard, making them more versatile. They’re also much more efficient than open fires, which can quickly consume large amounts of fuel and pose safety risks, especially in high winds.

Wood stoves are great not only for heating but also for cooking. They can serve as both a cooking source and a heat source at the same time.

While finding quality wood stoves can be a challenge, Amish stores often have a nice selection to choose from, including both traditional and modern designs.

Horse-Drawn Carriages

While not strictly a homesteading supply, horse-drawn carriages can be incredibly useful in emergencies or when living off the grid.

They don’t require fuel to operate and can navigate areas that cars often can’t reach. Plus, carriages are great for transporting supplies or people when necessary.

If you plan to live off the grid for an extended period, considering a horse-drawn carriage could be a smart way to help you move heavy items.

Water Gear

Water is the most essential resource people need every day, even when they’re not living off the grid. However, without electricity, it can be challenging to ensure a continuous supply of water.

That’s where a hand-operated pump comes in handy. You can find a high-quality water pump at an Amish store, allowing you to access water for showers, laundry, cooking, and drinking. It will also help keep your garden thriving.

These hand-operated water pumps can be connected to an existing well. Be sure to pick up any necessary pipes or fittings for the installation, and have containers ready for storing and transporting water.

Related: How To Make A Water Pump In Your Backyard

Quilts

Having a wood stove is definitely helpful for staying warm, but it might not always be sufficient, especially if you’re low on fuel. That’s why it’s good to have an alternative.

While blankets can be useful, they don’t always provide the best warmth. Quilts, however, are often designed with warmth in mind, prioritizing function as well as aesthetics. The Amish community is particularly skilled at making quilts that are both cozy and beautiful.

Sewing Machine

While sewing might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re thinking about homesteading, having some skills in that area can be really useful, especially if you find yourself off the grid for an extended period. You might need to repair torn clothing or even create additional shelter.

But how do you use a typical sewing machine without power? You can’t.

Fortunately, the Amish have been sewing for years without electricity. They usually make their own clothing and repair it as needed, rather than buying new clothes, using either a foot-pedal sewing machine or hand-sewing techniques.

If you’re looking to get started, Amish stores often have all the supplies you need to sew without electricity.

Non-Electric Tools

When you’re living off-grid, you’ll likely encounter many situations where you’ll need to build or repair things, like your shelter, a fence for your livestock, or a chicken coop. In these instances, having the right tools is essential.

However, many modern tools rely on electricity or large batteries, which might not be available in off-grid settings.

The Amish have been building and repairing for generations without power, so they offer a wide range of tools that don’t rely on electricity. These tools are crafted to last, ensuring durability and functionality. At Amish stores, you’ll find high-quality options that are perfect for your off-grid needs.

Food

We can’t discuss surviving off the grid with Amish goods without mentioning food. Many folks wouldn’t want to miss out on the chance to enjoy some delicious Amish meals or treats.

However, since we’re focusing on homesteading and survival, let’s look at some key food items that the Amish excel in for survival situations.

• Canned Goods: While you can find canned goods in any grocery store, the Amish produce quality items designed to last off the grid, just like their other products. They’ve been doing this for decades, and their food reflects that expertise.
• Sorghum: Sweet sorghum, also known as sorghum molasses, is one of the best sweeteners to have on hand during emergencies. It’s grown in Amish communities across America and is packed with minerals. Some say you can survive for quite a while on just one tablespoon of sweet sorghum dissolved in a glass of water.
• Dehydrated Foods: You can find dehydrated foods in various stores, but the quality from Amish stores is often superior. They take pride in providing products that are both nutritious and flavorful.
• Preserved Meats: In the Amish community, livestock is often slaughtered during the winter months. Any meat that isn’t eaten right away is typically cured, smoked, canned, and cooked in the jar during the canning process. This method eliminates the need to cook or reheat it later, making it an excellent addition to any survival kit.

These are just a few ideas of what to look for at an Amish store. They usually offer a wide variety of items that are incredibly useful for living off the grid, all crafted to last.

So next time you pass by an Amish store, make sure to stop in and check it out!

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The post 11 Items To Look For At An Amish Market first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

If you hail from a rural area, the differences between Amish life and life on your own farm or homestead are a lot less stark.

City folks who have only seen livestock in a petting zoo and have never touched a cow teat with their bare hands are typically in for a far more eye-opening experience.

Wholesome and busy. Those are the first two words that come to mind when describing what you see and feel when spending some time on an Amish farm, no matter where you are from.

The Amish are surely preppers, survival, and homesteading all-starts. Their way of life avidly wreaks of self-reliance and sustainability. They do not need to watch YouTube videos or read blog posts to learn how to do any of the farm chores they accomplish with vigor each day. Instead, those skills are passed down from generation to generation with hands-on training literally beginning around age two.

Related: Survival Skills You Should Learn From The Amish

A local Amish boy named David was hefting 50-pound bags of horse feed into my truck from his father’s farm business.

He was about 9 at the time and I felt a little bad watching him do all of the heavy lifting. I told him to make sure his dad paid him well for doing such hard work so quickly.

“This is like his college. David should be paying me for teaching him how to run the business,” his dad yelled out from his farm office while chuckling. Yes, the Amish do have a sense of humor.

Technology

The Amish, just like any other group of folks, are not a monolithic community. The “rules” of Amish life when it comes to technology in both simple and advanced forms, are agreed upon by each community and are not a rigid set of rules all Amish in America must follow. The rules can change over time if the community members agree with them.

For example, I once asked Ezra, my Amish farrier, if he knew if the Amish greenhouse in a neighboring village just across our county line was open for the season yet.

“I have no idea. Those are wild Amish, we do not associate with them at all.” Ezra replied.

I was of course curious and simply had to know what constituted “wild Amish.”

Related: Amish Powerless Tools For A World Without Power

By and large, Amish are open to questions about their way of life when asked respectfully and out of genuine curiosity and not judgment.

So I asked.

“They ride bicycles. Even the women,” was Ezra’s response.

Yes, I laughed at his answer. I simply could not help myself. Doing so surely would have been considered ill manners had I not known Ezra for so long and counted him as a friend – and have had him shake his head and laugh at our “modern” responses to various situations, as well.

Energy

Exactly how the Amish power all of their farm work, home building, and various businesses again varies by community. When actively working on the side as a real estate agent, I had the distinct pleasure of venturing inside many an Amish home.

Oh the yummy smells of homemade freshly baked bread and cookies in the old-fashioned oven, still make my mouth water. I am sure they may exist, but I have never met an Amish woman who was not both an excellent cook and baker.

The Amish farms in our county are all powered by wood-burning stoves.

But, in some Amish communities elsewhere in Ohio, solar power is used for home and business power.

Related: Modular Backyard Power Plant Review

When buying a home instead of building it themselves, some Amish leave the electrical outlets, wiring, and plumbing in the walls and simply do not hook up those services. Others completely yank out all of the wiring, receptacles, and plumbing.

The Amish are very savvy businessmen. They know if all of the modern utilities are removed from the home, the resale value drops substantially, so leaving the unused modern conveniences in place is something they are willing to accept.

While horse-drawn farm equipment still reigns supreme in nearly all Amish farms, in some cases gas powered generators and gas-powered equipment is used – in some communities.

That power source is not “tethered” to the land or the Amish home and does not connect them to the modern world in a tangible way, so it may be deemed acceptable.

Rumspringa

The concept of “Rumspringa” is a uniquely Amish tradition.

It is a period of adolescence where Amish youngsters are allowed to leave the community and experience life outside their own.

This period of soul-searching marks a transition from their childhood in the community to adulthood, and it’s up to them to decide whether they want to stay and continue farming or leave for a more “modern” way of life.

This period of self-reflection illustrates the Amish’s embrace of choice and individuality within the boundaries of their community’s traditions and beliefs.

A Woman’s Place…

Living outside of modern society to the most extreme extent possible is perhaps most evidently witnessed when watching the women and girls on an Amish farm.

The men are clearly in charge. That fact is likely obvious to anyone who has heard of Amish life, even if they have never passed a horse-drawn buggy going down the road or ever stepped foot on an Amish farm.

Yet, even though a woman is raised to know that the household and child-rearing responsibilities will fall squarely upon her shoulders – and may feel like a glorified broodmare at some stage in her life, Amish wives are not two-dimensional creatures. Many of the Amish women in my rural community remind me a lot of our homesteading friends and our pioneering ancestors.

An Amish wife will take both great pride and joy in cooking full and hearty meals for her family, tending to the garden, and caring for the children.

But, she is a strong gal and steps up to work alongside her husband and son if a cow gets stuck in the mud, a kid is in distress and needs pulled from its first-time nanny mommy, or any other yucky, dirty, messy, issue that can (and does) pop up on the farm – of the Amish variety of not.

No Pictures Please

Leave your cell phone in the car and just immerse yourself in the Amish farm tour experience. Amish folks as a whole, do not allow their photos to be taken.

You may ask how that worked when marketing that Amish Mafia reality show – that’s a question many Amish folks have shaken their heads in disbelief and asked, as well.

Now, if the image is taken at a distance and does not show distinct facial features, some Amish communities will allow images to be taken on their farm or at their business.

When I have needed some photos of an Amish farm for various writing projects or when marketing a farm tour for their community, I ask in advance and take photos from behind – like some adorable Amish children playing on a farm gate or my farrier working on my horse’s hooves.

That type of photo-taking is usually, but not always, acceptable. Good manners can go a long way when wanting some keepsake images from your Amish farm visit.

Education

Amish children are educated in a pioneer era or old-fashioned homeschool-type manner. While their formal academic education ends around age 13, the children are typically quite literate, excellent at math (making money is a high priority in the Amish community) and have an in-depth understanding of their faith and culture.

I was treated to a tour of the local Amish one-room schoolhouse. It was neat and orderly (just like an Amish home), included a religious-based curriculum created by Amish for Amish, and even included a classroom pet – a cockatiel.

I told the children I had parrots. They knew what parrots were but had never seen one. The adult trained by the community to teach the children gave me permission to show them a video of my parrots bobbing their heads and dancing to jazz music. The children were enthralled, both by the colorful parrots and the fact they were watching them in a device I was holding in my hand.

When even an Amish child makes a change for you at their farm or store, rest assured the amount will be accurate – without the need of ever using a calculator. In my experience, the Amish poppa would be highly displeased if the till was even a few cents off at the end of the day.

Amish Work Ethic

The work ethic of the Amish folks I have experienced on their farms and at their businesses is truly a timeless lesson in productivity and community. Growing up in such a modern century, it’s become easy to forget what hard work really means.

The advent of technology and modern conveniences has made our lives much easier compared to previous generations. But after spending time on an Amish farm during a recent visit, it hit me that something powerful lies beneath the surface of the deliberate, seemingly simplistic work practiced by these people.

The Amish believe that work is central to a meaningful life, a belief that is deeply rooted in their faith. It’s no surprise then that their strong work ethic permeates every aspect of their lives.

From the clothes they wear to the food they eat, everything is produced through a rigorous and disciplined work process that is a stark contrast to the “fast-food” approach in mainstream society.

On the farm, I observed a range of labor-intensive activities, including fieldwork with horses, harvesting crops, and milking cows by hand.

The Amish also manufacture their own furniture and build their own homes using traditional techniques passed down from one generation to the next.

Related: Natural Remedies From The Amish

One thing that stood out for me was how the farm worked as a unit; everybody was assigned a task, and they worked together to accomplish their goals. There was no sense of hierarchy or competition, but rather a shared sense of responsibility and ownership of the work they were doing.

This community-first approach to work is something that has gone missing in our modern-day workplaces, where individualistic goals and career advancement have taken precedence over the collective good.

The Amish work ethic is so deeply ingrained in their community that even as society progresses, it remains largely unchanged. One key takeaway is the value placed on craftsmanship and mastery, which contrasts sharply with the “throwaway culture” that defines much of our consumer-driven society where people are content to buy and throw away new products without thought.

The Amish’s sustainable approach to farming, using traditional techniques that have been passed down for centuries, is a testament to their commitment to low-impact and high-quality living.

Ultimately, the Amish way of life offers a new perspective on work and what it means to be a part of a community. Although it’s certainly not feasible for everyone to adopt their lifestyle, studying the Amish work ethic can provide valuable insights for better understanding productivity in the modern era.

Related: Cut Down On Your Bills In 2024 With These Amish Projects

There’s no denying the impact of technology on our lives, but as the Amish have shown, there’s something to be said for valuing hard work, craftsmanship, and community as much as productivity and profits.

I believe my most important takeaway from visiting an Amish farm and getting to know the folks who comprise their community locally is not all of the major differences between our lifestyles, but the beautiful similarities.

The shared love of working the land, taking care of the family, wrangling animals, and harvesting from the garden, are all major facets of life in both Amish and homesteading/prepper families.

Try not to stereotype the Amish into a label that pigeonholes them or makes them the modern-day equivalent of a traveling circus sideshow. Look past the plain and chaste clothing of the Amish and their aversion to cell phones, the internet, etc., and really see the people.

When I took my three young grandchildren with me to the farrier recently, they noticed none of the things I have noted as major cultural differences in this article. Instead, they just saw new friends to play in the dirt, puppies to cuddle in a shed behind the barn, and sweet fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies to snack upon in their not-so-clean hands.

This article first appeared here.

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One of the biggest challenges for modern homesteaders is the reliance on electricity and technology to run their daily operations. But what if suddenly there was no power? There are plenty of Amish powerless tools you should have ready for a world without power.

In a world without electricity, Amish communities have been thriving for centuries by using traditional tools and skills passed down from generation to generation.

Why Should I Use Amish Powerless Tools?

You should think about using Amish powerless tools because they’re built to last. Unlike modern power tools that often need repairs and new parts, these hand-crafted tools are extremely durable. Made from high-quality materials like hardwood, iron, and steel, they can handle heavy use for years.

Another advantage of using Amish powerless tools is their simplicity. They do not have complicated parts or engines that require fuel or electricity to function.

Related: 25 Powerless Appliances for Your Homestead Kitchen

They’re simple to use and maintain, even if you don’t have much experience with traditional tools. This makes them perfect for off-grid living since they don’t rely on any outside energy.

Besides being easy and tough, these hand-powered tools save money too. With no need for electricity or fuel, they cost way less to use than modern power tools.

Plus, without any electronic parts, you don’t have to worry about electrical surges or breakdowns.

Grain Mill

One of the most valuable Amish powerless tools is the hand-cranked grain mill. It lets you grind grains into flour using just human effort—no electricity needed. This makes it essential for making bread, a key food staple. Its compact, sturdy design means it fits easily into any kitchen or storage space.

Cider Presses

A cider press is used to crush apples and squeeze out the juice. It usually has a wooden barrel where apples go in, a crank-powered grinder to mash them, and a screw press to squeeze out the juice. Amish presses are built to last, often made from heavy-duty wood and cast iron.

You load in chopped apples, turn the crank to crush them, then press down to extract the juice. The juice can be drunk fresh, fermented into hard cider, or turned into vinegar. Since there’s no electricity involved, you can use it anywhere, anytime.

Wood-Burning Cook Stove

Another essential tool is the wood-burning cook stove. This stove not only provides warmth but also serves as a cooking surface for preparing meals. These stoves are made to spread heat well and make less smoke inside.

Cast Iron Cookware

Cast iron cookware lasts forever and works over any heat source—wood stoves, campfires, or gas burners. The Amish use cast iron skillets, Dutch ovens, and griddles because they heat evenly and retain heat for a long time.

With proper care, they get a natural non-stick surface called seasoning, which happens when oil is baked into the metal. A well-seasoned skillet can fry, bake, roast, or even make bread. Unlike modern non-stick pans, cast iron won’t scratch, chip, or wear out. Just keep it dry to prevent rust, and it’ll last for generations.

Oil Lamps & Lanterns

Before electricity, everyone used oil lamps and lanterns for light. Amish homes still rely on them, using kerosene, lamp oil, or even vegetable oil as fuel. Most lamps have a wick that soaks up oil and a glass chimney that protects the flame. Here’s how the Amish use their oil lamps.

Hurricane lanterns are a popular style because they’re portable and work well in wind or rain. They give off a warm, steady glow, making them great for power outages. Unlike battery-powered lights, oil lamps don’t rely on electricity, and as long as you have oil, you’ll always have light.

Water Pump

A handy tool to have is a manual water pump. When power outages or infrastructure issues limit access to clean water, having a reliable way to get water is critical.

The Amish have used manual pumps for generations. These pumps work by using a lever system to draw up groundwater with each pump motion.

Related: How To Make A Water Pump In Your Backyard

Hand Planes

Hand planes smooth and shape wood without sandpaper or power tools. They have a sharp blade set into a wooden or metal body, and when you push it across the wood, it shaves off thin layers. As one of the best Amish powerless tools, hand planes come in different types—jack planes for rough shaping, smoothing planes for finishing, and block planes for small detail work.

A good hand plane can turn rough lumber into furniture-quality wood with just some muscle and skill. With no moving parts except the blade, they last for generations and work just as well as power sanders—just quieter!

Kerosene Heater

For those who rely heavily on electricity for heating during colder months, an Amish-made kerosene heater may be an excellent alternative. They are ideal for small spaces such as cabins or tents and can provide sufficient heat to keep individuals warm during harsh winters.

Plows and Seeders

For agricultural purposes, manual farming equipment such as plows and seeders come in handy when there is no access to tractors or other motorized machinery. These simple yet effective tools ensure that crops can still be planted and harvested without relying on modern technology.

Braces & Augers

A brace and auger is one of the best Amish powerless tools for boring holes in wood. The brace is the U-shaped handle, and the auger bit is the spiral-shaped drill bit that cuts into the wood. You turn the brace in a circular motion, and the auger digs deep, clean holes.

Unlike modern drills, braces don’t need batteries or electricity, and they give you better control, especially for woodworking or furniture-making. The Amish prefer them because they’re reliable, quiet, and easy to repair. If you ever need to drill a hole without power, this is the best tool for the job.

Hand-Crank Grinders

A hand-crank grinder is a must-have for sharpening knives, axes, and tools without electricity. It works by spinning a grinding wheel as you turn the handle. Among the best Amish powerless tools, it helps keep farm tools, kitchen knives, and even saw blades razor-sharp. Some grinders have a stone wheel for sharpening and a wire brush wheel for removing rust.

Unlike electric grinders, these don’t overheat metal, which helps keep blades strong. They’re simple, reliable, and perfect for off-grid living. If you want sharp tools without relying on power, a hand-crank grinder is the way to go.

Plush Plow

One of the most popular is the push plow, also known as a wheel hoe. This tool consists of a wooden frame with a single wheel at the front and metal blades attached to it.

The user simply pushes the plow along rows of crops, allowing the blades to cut through weeds and loosen up soil. With this tool, there is no need for gas-powered tillers or weed whackers.

Scythe

This long-curved blade with handles on either end has been used for centuries to cut grass, wheat, and other crops by hand. It requires precision and skill but can be highly effective in maintaining gardens without any fuel or electricity. Among the best Amish powerless tools, it remains a reliable way to harvest and manage land off-grid.

Butter Churn

The butter churn is one of the classic symbols of Amish kitchens. It’s basically a wooden barrel or jar with a handle. By turning the handle by hand, you can turn cream into tasty homemade butter. What makes this tool great is how simple it is—no electricity or fancy parts are needed.

Besides being practical, the Amish appreciate how durable and long-lasting their kitchen tools are. Most are made from strong materials like wood, metal, and ceramic, built to handle heavy use and last for generations.

Dibbles

For tasks like planting seeds or moving seedlings, Amish gardeners use simple hand-held tools called dibbles. These are basically pointed sticks or metal rods with markings to show the right seed depth. They’re lightweight, easy to use, and work with just human effort—no power needed.

The Amish also rely on animals for heavier tasks. Horses often take the place of tractors for plowing fields, and oxen are used to pull carts full of crops.

It’s no surprise that the Amish tend to live longer, healthier lives than most Americans. They aren’t constantly surrounded by screens, chemicals, or processed food. Their way of life, grounded in hard work, clean eating, and natural remedies might seem old-fashioned, but it’s stood the test of time.

If you’ve ever wondered how they manage to live so simply and still thrive, Eddie Swartzentruber, who was born and raised in one of the strictest Old Order Amish communities, offers a rare, first-hand look into that world.

In his world, even battery-powered lights were forbidden. After leaving the Amish, he decided to preserve the knowledge he grew up with before it disappeared for good. And for the first time ever, someone who actually lived this life from the inside reveals the exact canning methods, healing salves, homegrown remedies, and survival strategies his people have relied on for hundreds of years.

This isn’t second-hand research. It’s real-life wisdom from someone who actually lived it all. 

His book is available now—but only in limited quantities, since it’s printed in small batches to keep the quality true to its roots. If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on a copy, you’ll understand why this knowledge is too valuable to be lost.

👉 Click here to look inside the book, watch the short video, and see what it’s all about

Using Amish-style, hand-powered tools for homesteading means staying independent without electricity. These tools last a long time, work for farming, building, and cooking, and are simple to use. They help you learn to live off-grid and stay strong when times get tough.

The trick is to be prepared. While living without electricity can seem intimidating, following Amish practices can make off-grid living manageable.

What about you? Do you have or use any Amish powerless tools? Let us know in the comments below! 

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However, every Amish kid learns these few survival skills when they’re very young. You should, too. Let’s get started.

When to Start Storing Food

Though the Amish have no issue with going to the grocery store and most appreciate the fact that we can have strawberries in September if we want them, almost all sects of the Amish still store and can their own food.

This doesn’t mean you need to run out and buy a canner, but learning about the cycle of gardening and when to harvest and store every food you enjoy is a very good thing to do. Few of us have forgotten the empty grocery store shelves of the early Covid-19 pandemic. How long did you go without fresh fruit? For some of us, it was quite a while. I assure you, the Amish were simply going into their basement and popping open a can of peaches or apples without a blink. We can do that, too.

When to Start Cutting Wood

This somewhat depends on your area of the country. If you’re in a very cold area, you may be chopping (or gathering) wood all year long. If you do not have a wood-burning stove or fireplace in your home and you’re in a place where it gets cold enough to warrant one; why not? If your heater goes out, you have a second source of warmth.

While most of the states don’t get so cold for so long that we’re running a risk of freezing in our own homes in that case, it does still happen to a small minority of people. This is especially true in blizzards or sudden storms that cause power loss. Having an additional heat source is just plain smart. And dry wood keeps forever.

There are thousands of calculators available online to help you learn how many cords of wood you’ll need to purchase or collect to keep your home cozy. Double what they say and you’ll never be left out in the cold.

How to Light a Fire

Learn how to make a fire. While it’s unlikely you’ll ever be trapped with a teenaged soccer team in the wilderness (yes that’s a Yellowjackets joke), you never know when lighting a fire will come in handy. Even if you just end up being the hero who knows how to make a bonfire burn, fire is what sets us apart from so many other species. We’ve bottled it, canned it, and we’re using it right now to build the machines that you’re reading this on.

Fire is incredibly cool, which is pretty ironic all things considered.

To build a good fire, start with good matches. If you’re building a fire in a wood oven or a fireplace, get long matches to do so. Yes, they make different types of matches. Exciting, right? Check your local hardware store. It’s neat.

Stuff a toilet paper roll with dryer lint and place it beneath several very dry, very small twigs. Build a small pyramid of these over the tube and place larger, thicker sticks over them. Strike your match once you have sticks about as big as your index finger in circumference. Light the lint and the edge of the tube. Congratulations, you’ve made fire. Remember that fire only burns as long as it can breathe so be certain to allow it plenty of room to lick up to new bits of wood; don’t crush it out.

Repairing Without Electricity

Maybe your tire blows out on your car and you don’t have any way to get your lug nuts off other than your tire iron. Maybe you’re trying to hang a painting and your drill gun’s battery is dead.

Spend time and learn to work with tools that don’t function through battery power or being plugged in. Does it suck to sit there with a hand saw and saw manually through a block of wood? It sure does, especially if you’re used to using things like battery-operated circular saws that take seconds to plow through the wood. But, you’re making a backup plan here in case you’re ever stuck without electricity. And using a saw isn’t as straightforward as one may expect.

Bluntly, using manual tools is a necessity I hope none of you ever have to use. It can be absolutely back-breaking labor and exhausting. But it is a good skill to know you have. Driving a screw with a normal screwdriver takes time and talent. Take the time to grow that talent before you have to use it.

Transportation

This one is going to be met with some debate, but I hold fast to it. Learn to ride something other than a car unless a disability prevents you from doing so. If you have the opportunity, learn to drive horses. Learn to ride a bicycle. Learn to ride a horse, too. Roller skate, roller blade; it doesn’t matter how you learn to get around so much as it matters that you do.

If the power is down in your area for a long time, you may not be able to get gasoline for your vehicle. This can cause a pretty serious transportation issue. If you have an alternative or even know an alternative method, you may still be able to make it to the hospital or the grocery store when needed.

Have you learned some neat survival skills from your Amish neighbors? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below. And remember, Happy Homesteading!

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The post Survival Skills You Should Learn From The Amish first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

The Amish community is known for its simple and traditional way of life, which extends to their healthcare practices. Amish natural remedies play a significant role in their approach. They often rely on traditional, home-based solutions for common ailments while blending them with other methods as needed.

As a homesteader or a future one, you can use many of the herbal remedies commonly known by the Amish community.

What Kind of Amish Natural Remedies Can You Use?

You can cultivate your own medicinal herbs in your backyard and always have a fresh source of herbs for making remedies. I recommend you start with these.

Use these herbs to brew herbal teas that soothe, promote health, and fit perfectly into your daily homestead routine.

Create herbal tinctures by extracting beneficial compounds from the herbs with alcohol or vinegar.

Apply poultices made from yarrow, mullein, or comfrey to relieve pain, reduce inflammation, and treat skin issues.

Common Amish Natural Remedies

Chamomile

You can use chamomile as a natural remedy just like the Amish. Chamomile is a versatile herb known for its calming and soothing properties, and you can use it in many ways.

One of the most common and simple uses of chamomile is turning it into tea. Grow chamomile in your herb garden, and harvest the flowers when they are in bloom. Dry the flowers by spreading them on a tray or hanging them in a well-ventilated area. Store the dried flowers in an airtight container. To make tea, simply steep a teaspoon of dried chamomile flowers in hot water for 5-10 minutes. You can sweeten it with honey if you like.

Chamomile tea is soothing and can help with sleep, relaxation, and digestive discomfort. It can be used for stress relief or as a mild sedative.

Amish Natural Remedies: Ginger

One of the most common ginger remedies Amish uses is ginger syrup. Prepare ginger syrup by simmering ginger with honey or sugar. This syrup can be used to soothe sore throats, coughs, and cold symptoms.

Ginger is well-known for its digestive and anti-inflammatory properties, and it can be a valuable addition to a homesteader’s natural remedy toolkit.

Echinacea

Echinacea, or coneflower, serves as a powerful natural remedy known for its immune-boosting properties.

Treat wounds or insect stings with an Echinacea poultice. Simply crush fresh Echinacea leaves and flowers, and apply them directly to the affected area.

To follow traditional Amish practices, start by making an Echinacea syrup. First, combine Echinacea tincture with honey, creating a sweet and soothing mixture. Then, use this syrup as a daily immune tonic, especially for children who might not enjoy the taste of the tincture on its own.

You can find here high-quality, NON-GMO echinacea seeds.

Amish Natural Remedies: Yarrow

Yarrow, also known as Achillea millefolium, can be used to help stop bleeding and promote wound healing.

One of the most common remedies is yarrow slave. As ingredients, use Yarrow-infused oil (made by infusing a carrier oil with dried yarrow) and beeswax. Combine the infused oil and beeswax to make a salve. Apply the salve topically to help with minor skin irritations and to promote wound healing.

Nettle

Amish communities use this herb to support their immune system.

Nettles often grow wild, but you can also plant them in your garden. These hardy perennials are easy to grow and a great addition to any homestead.

When harvesting, pick young leaves and stems before the plants flower. Be sure to wear gloves to protect yourself from stings. You can either snip individual leaves or cut the upper part of the plant for convenience.

For long-term storage, dry the nettles carefully. Spread the leaves and stems in a well-ventilated spot, or speed up the process with a food dehydrator. Once they are fully dried, store them in an airtight container to keep them fresh for future use.

You can use nettle to make nettle tea, nettle infusion, and even soup or pesto.

Amish Natural Remedies: Honey

The Amish community relies on honey as a trusted natural remedy for health and wellness. They value its many potential health benefits and seamlessly integrate it into their daily routines.

To soothe a sore throat or suppress a stubborn cough, the Amish often take a spoonful of honey. They mix it with lemon juice for a comforting and effective remedy.

During cold and flu season, the Amish often use raw honey as a natural way to boost their immune system. Its enzymes and antioxidants are thought to strengthen the body’s defenses.

Honey is also popular for its wound-healing abilities. The Amish apply it directly to minor cuts, burns, or wounds to help prevent infection. For added protection, they sometimes pair it with a clean bandage.

From cough relief to wound care, honey remains a versatile and essential part of Amish natural remedies.

Garlic

Garlic is a key remedy for respiratory issues in the Amish community. When someone has a cold, cough, or congestion, they often make a homemade garlic remedy. This involves boiling garlic cloves and mixing them with honey, lemon, and other soothing ingredients to create a syrup or tea. Drinking this mixture is believed to ease symptoms and strengthen the immune system.

For insect bites, garlic is also a go-to solution. Crushing a garlic clove and applying it directly to the bite can help reduce itching and inflammation.

As a homesteader, I’ve found it valuable to learn about Amish traditions and incorporate their remedies into my practices. The Amish rely on herbs and natural ingredients, many of which are easy to grow on a homestead.

These remedies are especially helpful during emergencies, power outages, or when living far from conventional healthcare. By embracing them, you can boost your self-reliance and be better prepared for unexpected challenges.

While herbal remedies can be a great addition to a homesteader’s health toolkit, it’s important to remember that not all remedies are suitable for everyone or every situation. If you have specific health concerns or are unsure about using a particular remedy, it’s always wise to consult with a healthcare professional or herbalist to ensure safe and effective use.

Do you know any other natural remedies from the Amish? Let us know!

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One of the advantages of homesteading is reducing expenses by DIYing most of the necessary projects and items. You can try a lot of Amish DIY projects that will prove to be useful for any homesteader, but it comes with its own set of challenges. For one, many of these projects need a high level of skill and experience.

The Amish have honed these skills over generations, and for modern homesteaders, there could be a steep learning curve.

Another challenge lies in the fact that the Amish tend to avoid using modern machinery and technology. This means that their projects may take more time and manual labor if you’re accustomed to the conveniences of modern tools.

Additionally, sourcing the raw materials required for Amish DIY projects can be a hurdle, especially if you live in urban or suburban areas. The Amish often use locally available, natural materials that might not be as easily accessible to everyone else.

Remember, the goal is not to replicate Amish life exactly but to adopt some of their efficient and self-sufficient practices into your homesteading journey. So let’s begin:

Grow Your Own Food

An Amish vegetable garden is typically cleared by hand using a hoe or plow. This method is labor-intensive but saves electricity or gas on tilling your garden.

The pros of this method include keeping your garden free of pesticides. The con is that you need to work more.  The Amish often opt for heritage vegetable varieties, which can be more resistant to pests and diseases, and often have more flavor than modern hybrids.

Crop rotation is a method used by the Amish to maintain soil fertility. By growing different crops in the same area each year, you can reduce the risk of soil-borne diseases and improve soil structure and nutrition.

To grow your own food, keep in mind that the Amish often make their own compost from kitchen scraps and animal manure. This acts as a rich, natural fertilizer for the plants and helps improve the soil texture over time.

Instead of using chemical weed killers, the Amish control weeds through regular hand-weeding. This allows for the removal of unwanted plants without harming the environment. The Amish often save seeds from their crops to sow the next year. This is a great way to perpetuate your favorite varieties and save money on seeds in the long run.

If you want to see more about crop rotation Amish style, heirloom seeds, or even see how to make the Amish herbal pest control spray, click here and get access to every piece of forbidden knowledge!

Off-Grid Energy Solutions

Amish communities are experts at living off the grid and have fine-tuned energy solutions to cut down on their bills.

One of the most common off-grid energy solutions is the use of solar panels. Solar power is a renewable, clean energy source that can power everything from lights to appliances. The initial investment might be high, but over time, it significantly reduces utility costs.

Wind power is another off-grid solution. Many Amish families install small wind turbines on their properties to generate electricity.

Amish communities often employ wood-burning stoves for heating and cooking. Not only does this provide a cozy heat source during the winter, but it’s also a highly sustainable method to produce energy, particularly if you use fallen wood.

Lastly, the Amish make use of propane or natural gas for lighting, cooking, and refrigeration. Though these are not purely renewable sources, their efficiency makes them a better choice than standard electricity.

One nice trick they use is solar-powered lamps. Just imagine how useful these lamps can be on a homestead in an off-grid setting. Compared to the oil or propane lamps, these ones pose no risk and the only fuel they need is the rays of the sun.

You can use them as an outdoor light source in your yard and garden, but you can also use them inside your home. During the day, you can get them out to recharge and then you have free light all night long.

Here you can see how the Amish use these lamps and also how they get them →

Canning

Amish homesteaders preserve their fruits and vegetables using canning jars. A DIY canning jar storage shelf offers adequate storage space and keeps the jars organized.

The pro here is the ease of finding items and shelf organization, while the cons include the cost of materials and storage limitations. Canning jars are also versatile and can be used for various purposes such as storing pantry items, making homemade candles or soap, and even drinking glasses.

Investing in a good-quality storage shelf can help save space and keep the area clutter-free. It is important to properly label and organize the jars for easy access and inventory management.

If you want a complete and step-by-step guide about all the secrets the Amish have about canning, you can see more here →

DIY Chicken Coop

If you want fresh eggs in the morning, you need to build a chicken coop. An Amish DIY chicken coop can be made from pallets and is probably one of the most affordable projects you can have in your backyard.

The pros are fresh eggs daily and small-scale food production, while the cons include the need for materials and cleaning time.

Start by sketching a simple design to fit your space and needs, remembering to include a roosting area, nesting boxes, and a place for feeding and drinking. Use the pallet wood to construct the coop, including a hinged door for easy access. To weatherproof, cover the outer walls with leftover tin roofing or use a tarp.

You can use straw to make the bedding for your birds. You should also consider a ‘deep litter method’ where you simply add straw to the coop over time, allowing it to compost in place. This not only provides heat during the winter but makes clean-up easier as you only have to clear it out once or twice a year.

👉 DIY Amish Chicken Coop

Root Cellar

Root cellars provide storage space for garden produce, homemade jams, and canned food.

The pros of this project involve less food waste, while the cons include the cost of materials and time investment.

To save on costs, consider building an underground root cellar using cinder blocks and a corrugated metal roof. Make sure to insulate the walls with straw or hay bales for added insulation. Additionally, a dehumidifier can help control moisture levels in the cellar to prevent mold growth. For a more above-ground solution, convert a spare closet or pantry into a canning pantry by adding shelves and storage containers for canned goods.

And since I told you about the Amish root cellar, I also want to tell you about the Amish fridge. This is an electricity-free fridge they use when they want something that cools better than a root cellar. This is the perfect place to keep eggs and milk if you’re living off-grid. And the thing that surprised me the most is that this doesn’t require too much maintenance.

You can find out more about this miraculous device and a full guide about how to build it here →

Rain Barrel Irrigation System

The Amish collect rainwater using barrels that store enough water for irrigation purposes.

The pros include free water for irrigation, while the cons include the need for setup and maintenance. Building a rain barrel irrigation system on a budget is quite doable with a few low-cost materials and a bit of elbow grease.

Start by sourcing a large, food-grade plastic barrel from a local food processing plant or online; some places may even give these away for free. Next, purchase a spigot and a downspout diverter kit from your local hardware store. After that, drill a hole near the bottom of the barrel to fit the spigot and another on the lid to connect the downspout diverter. The diverter will direct rainwater from your home’s downspout into your barrel, while any excess water will continue down the downspout, preventing overflow.

For irrigation, attach a hose to the spigot, and gravity will do the rest, providing you with a low-cost, eco-friendly irrigation system for your garden. Remember to cover the barrel with a fine net or screen to keep leaves, debris, and mosquitoes out.

How to Get Unlimited Access to the Amish Wisdom

The Amish have spent generations learning how to grow food, preserve harvests, make practical remedies, reduce dependence on electricity, and build useful systems from simple materials. They are the perfect example that a self-sufficient lifestyle is a real thing and not a fantasy. When you’re homesteading, you have to deal with many obstacles, from getting energy to preserving your food, so why not learn from the best about how to make all of this easier? Since the Amish have been doing this for hundreds of years, the way they approach things is basically homesteading on easy mode. They had time to learn all of that, but you don’t have that long to figure out all of these things on your own. That’s why this might help.

Eddie Swartzentruber, who grew up in one of the strictest Amish communities, saw how dependent modern families had become on electricity, stores, and other modern conveniences. That inspired him to preserve the practical knowledge he learned growing up and share it with homesteaders who want to become more capable and self-reliant.

The Amish Ways includes step-by-step projects, recipes, remedies, material lists, color photographs, and tips designed to help you apply these old-fashioned skills on your own property.

Inside, you’ll discover:

• How to Brew Yourself a Batch of Amish Ibuprofen🌿
• How the Amish Heat And Cool Their Homes Without Electricity 🏡
• Canning Amish Poor Man’s Steak 🥩
• How To Grow Potatoes In Thin Air 🥔
• The Amish Painkilling Tincture 💧
• And many, many more… 

Also, if you want video support, you can join The Amish Ways Academy. All the video tutorials are led by the same Eddie and he explains in great detail how to make various projects meant to make your homestead better.

Now, no matter which one you choose, I managed to get an amazing deal for you, the readers of the Self-Sufficient Projects Blog. I appreciate your loyalty and your interest in our articles, and this is why I want to give you something back.

Click here to get the Amish Ways for a 76% discount  →

And if you want the video academy, you can get it from here for an 83% discount →

Final Thoughts

The Amish community has perfected many homesteading projects. These ones can help you save money and become more self-sufficient in your home. I hope this article helps you cut down your bills and in your journey to be less dependent on the grid.

Happy homesteading!

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The post Cut Down On Your Bills In 2026 With These Amish Projects first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.

When it comes to food preservation, the Amish predominantly rely on canning methods. This choice is rooted in their beliefs, as some contemporary preservation techniques conflict with their values.

Over the decades, the canning process itself has remained essentially unchanged. However, today’s Amish women may use either propane-powered or generator-powered stoves, depending on the approval of their specific Community and Bishop.

In contrast to those outside the Amish community, who typically use dishwashers for jar sterilization, the Amish employ propane-powered stoves to heat water, ensuring the cleanliness and sterilization of their jars throughout the canning process.

Related: What The Amish Ate During The Great Depression

Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio are home to approximately two-thirds of the Amish community, with the highest concentration residing in Holmes County, Ohio.

Having grown up just outside the Amish community, I have had the privilege of drawing inspiration for our recipe from one of my local connections within their community. In a show of support, I have sourced all the food items I’m using from their nearby variety store.

The Amish, known for their sustainable approach to farming, primarily cultivate root vegetables that are well-suited for their family needs. Root vegetables have an extended shelf life when stored in a pantry, as they are accustomed to thriving in the moist, dark earth.

Remarkably, I acquired all the vegetables required for this recipe—potatoes, carrots, and yellow onions—for a mere sum of slightly over a dollar. Additionally, I was able to procure frozen ground beef and beef bouillon for under four dollars, with the remaining ingredients consisting of a can of diced tomatoes.

Let’s get started on this awesome recipe for Amish stew.

Ingredients

• 4 small-medium potatoes
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 14oz can of diced tomatoes
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp chives
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 1lb frozen ground beef
• Dutch oven
• Pressure cooker/ Canner

Directions:

1. Turn the stove (the Amish use gas but I have an electric stove) to medium heat. We’re now going to brown our beef in the Dutch oven to create some fond on the bottom of the pot.

Fond is the caramelization that happens at the bottom of the pot when browning meat or vegetables. After it’s browned we’re going to drain out as much grease as we can.

2. Here we’re going to add our vegetables: carrots, potatoes, onion and diced tomatoes. These veggies contain key nutrients to our diet like vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium and folate.

3. We’re gonna mix our 2 beef bouillon cubes with 3 cups of hot water until they are dissolved and add it in the Dutch oven with our garlic powder, chives, and parsley.

4. Pull out a deck of cards to play solitaire because we’re going to turn the heat down to low and cook for 3 hours with the Dutch oven lid on to retain moisture.

5. Our Amish stew is ready to eat so serve it up with some cornbread to make sure it’s to your liking. Add salt or pepper then let’s move on to canning.

How To Can Amish Stew

We’re going to use the pressure canning method to preserve our Amish stew.

Pressure canning is the only safe method of preserving low-acid foods. Low-acid foods include vegetables, meats, fish, and poultry.

Pressurized steam creates the needed temperature of 240 degrees Fahrenheit or higher that will destroy the bacteria present in the food.

1. Fill your pressure canner with 3 inches of hot water. Unlike the water bath method the jars don’t have to be fully covered. It is imperative to have adequate water level or risk damaging your pressure canner.
2. Put a rack at the bottom of the pressure canner and add your jars. The stew will be hot so I recommend using jar tongs to avoid burning yourself or dropping the jars.
3. Turn on the heat to high on your stove. Pop the lid of the pressure canner and tighten the seal. Once the vent starts steaming, set the timer to 10 minutes.
4. When the venting period is complete, use an oven mitt to place the weighted gauge on the canner.
5. Turn the stove to low heat. Process filled jars in a pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure 1 hour and 15 minutes for pints and 1 hour and 30 minutes for quarts.
6. Release pressure from the pressure canner. Remove the jars carefully with jar tongs and allow the jars to cool. Check for the seal.

I only managed to can two jars of this recipe. My children smelled it and decided they needed to taste test the Amish Stew for control purposes. They ate most of the stew only leaving me with enough to can only two jars when this recipe makes about 6-8 quarts.

This delectable recipe has unquestionably earned a permanent spot on our dinner menu! I intend to prepare a larger batch, knowing that through pressure canning, this stew can maintain its quality for up to two years when stored in a cool, dark place.

Final Thoughts

The Amish community offers valuable lessons, whether it’s their preservation techniques or their scrumptious recipes. Their lifestyle resonates with many homesteaders.

The Amish lifestyle is marked by self-sufficiency, which means that they remain largely unaffected by external crises. This resilience aligns with the aspirations of every homesteader: to be well-prepared and self-sustaining regardless of the circumstances.

Feel free to share in the comments which other skills and aspects of the Amish community and lifestyle you’d like to learn about.

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The post Canning $5 Amish Stew first appeared on Self Sufficient Projects.