Amish Grocery Stores In Indiana – Have you been to Vernon’s Amish grocery store, Olde Kountry Market? I’m sure for some this place is one of the best kept secrets in the area especially if you are into cooking or baking.
A while ago my wife was obsessed with baking and we drove to Canada to a place called Bulk Barn because they had all kinds of bulk baking supplies and accessories that I had a hard time finding here. So we thought!
Amish Grocery Stores In Indiana
It turns out there is a store that deals in bulk and hard to find items right in our backyard.
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The market has deli meats, frozen foods, fresh homemade pies, and crafty things you’d expect to find in an Amish shop, but there’s so much more.
Here are 10 great items to find at your local Amish Market on Route 5 in Vernon.
4. A large bag of Buffalo Chicken Wing potato chips from a brand I had never heard of
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From gas, tires and bicycles to wood, coffee and air conditioners, here are 15 items that will be in short supply. Whenever we are in Amish Indiana we always stop at E&S Sales in Chipshewana. This is another place I’ve been to for years without stopping to investigate. A bulk food store doesn’t sound like a holiday-like destination—but these days, we’re never out of there in under 20 minutes or under $20!
I imagined a bulk food store with 40 pound bags of flour and gallon cans of ketchup. But as the pictures indicate, that is not the case. Besides the usual stuff, there are hundreds of items that aren’t found in regular grocery stores, at least not where I currently live in suburban chicago. Packaged stuff like cookie and soup mixes, dried fruit snacks, dozens of types of pastries, all kinds of candies, cookie decorations, nuts, popcorn, spices, beans, pasta, snack foods you’ve never heard of, and so much more. Stuff in jars like jams, jellies, preserves, Amish peanut butter, apple butter, pickles, honey, canned fruit, relishes, maple syrup, and more. And it continues like this. It is something you have to see and believe.
E&S recently doubled the size of their building, and now they have more things like chilled and frozen foods and fresh bakery goods. But the old favorites are still there, with plenty of new ones. It’s a nice place to rub shoulders with the Amish, learn about the local culture, and bring back some fun and tasty items you wouldn’t find at home. Be aware that they do not take debit or credit cards, only checks or cash. And like most Indiana Amish retail stores, they are closed in the evenings and on Sundays, and Swiss cheese can be an acquired taste, and Delbert Bontrager has always prided itself on helping customers get it right.
“Swiss cheese has always been my favorite,” said Bontrager, founder and longtime owner of Mission General Store, now Stutzman’s Country Market, in St. Ignatius. “We met several people who say they don’t like Swiss cheese and we changed their minds. The key is Swiss cheese from Ohio. I think everyone in the West should try it.”
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Bontrager ran the shop for nearly a decade before they expanded into a deli and began selling quality meats and cheeses. Now, there are more than 40 different varieties, ranging from the gamut from traditional Swiss cheese to creamy white raspberry cheese to a whole host of heat-packed bricks: regular peppercorn, jalapeño monster, mango cheddar, smoked horseradish, and Carolina Reaper cheddar, made with One of the most popular types of pepper known.
“I am a cheese critic,” Bontrager said. “I only sell from reputable sources. I’ve sat with a lot of owners of these where they have tasting combinations, and I know they come out as better cheeses.”
“My goal has always been just to serve the food and listen to the customers,” he said. “And then finding unique products that people might want to drive to a country store for.”
Clara Koblentz steaks at a deli at Stutzmann Country Market in St. Ignatius on May 26, 2021. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Bacon
Bulk Food Store
The Amish community in St. Ignatius is similar to those scattered across the state: small and close-knit. Approximately 30 families—about 160 people, counting the children—follow a devout Christian lifestyle in the shadow of the Mission Mountains.
“Culture comes from years ago, constantly being pushed back by oppression,” Bontrager said. “It taught us a strong work ethic, to work to survive. We teach the concept of helping people, all Christian principles based on the Bible.”
All members of the community are raised bilingual, with Pennsylvania Dutch as the main language. Children master it at the age of seven, and compulsory education stops after the eighth grade.
According to Bontrager, the community is unique on the Flathead Indian Reservation. St. Ignatius mixes the Amish with Native and Non-Native Americans, and nowhere is this mixing more on display than at the Market.
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“We made for a friendly country shop,” said Bontrager. “I see people talking there who don’t talk to each other when they meet in town. When you see your neighbor in the market, you are actually talking to your neighbor.”
Laurie and Chris Stutzman, owners and operators of Stutzman Country Market in St. Ignatius on May 26, 2021. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Bacon
Bontrager grew up in the Amish community of Topeka, Indiana, and moved west to the Eureka-Rexford area, where he worked for 14 years before meeting his wife, Ruth.
Ruth had been manager of a dry goods and fabric store for several years, and the couple decided they could run an entire market, which is often a staple in Amish communities across the country. They moved to St. Ignatius and gave it a shot, starting as a discount market.
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Dressing boxes that usually sell for $3 are 99 cents. Cereals and nuts are bought from the market in bulk and repackaged for cheap sales. Foods that are near or slightly expired cover the shelves.
“We knew we would only sell produce that we would eat ourselves,” Bontrager said of paleo foods. “The biggest attraction was the prices. The market is a staple of society, but it’s also a place where people come looking for bargains.”
Between the shelves of closing and deli, sections of the market sell fabrics, furniture and ice cream cones. The whole building has an old fashioned feel to it, as if you were back in the 60’s – at least the 60’s, although you might think it’s the 60’s after you look at the horses and buggies parked outside.
“Over the years we’ve learned what works here in the West versus the back East in the larger Amish communities,” he said. “It’s just an eighth-grade education, a lot of experience and a lot of questions from other people. We’ve had great success over those 17 years.”
Sign At The Local Amish Grocery Store. #indiana #amishhumo…
A sandwich, chips and lemonade from a deli at Stutzman Country Market in St. Ignatius on May 26, 2021. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Bacon
The produce section at Stutzmann Country Market in St. Ignatius on May 26, 2021. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Bacon
Bontrager had an accident a few years ago that left him with a serious head injury. Running the business was stressful after he got out of a month-long hospital stay.
“I don’t want to stress and stress anymore,” he said. “I needed to get out, and God saw a way out for me.”
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The outlet came in the form of Chris Stutzman, owner of Stutzman’s Amish Furniture in Paulson.
“When Chris came in, I knew he had a good business in Paulson and understood the Amish community,” Bontrager said. “So, once we talked to him, we came to an agreement.”
“We’ve always wanted to add bulk foods, meats, cheeses and delis to the furniture store; I’ve always respected Delbert and saw an opportunity to follow this up and make it ours,” Stutzman said.
Similar to Bontrager, Stutzman grew up in an Amish community in the Midwest, in Ohio. He left the Amish lifestyle at the age of 18 and lives by electricity and a car, although all of his 14 Eastside siblings still drive their own.
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Stutzman and his wife moved to Montana as missionaries with Youth with a Mission (YWAM), and when they transitioned from the program into the business world, they knew they wanted to run a furniture store or grocery store.
Chairs on display at Stutzman Country Market in St. Ignatius on May 26, 2021. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Bacon
“YWAM helped me respect the culture I grew up in a little bit more,” Stutzman said. “Everyone’s culture is unique and I wanted to come back to continue sharing our roots and the values and morals we were raised with, and there
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