Amnews.com - Amish merchants offer a variety of products, services
Amnews.com - Amish merchants offer a variety of products, services
Amish merchants offer a variety of products, services
By JOHN T. DAVIS
Staff Writer
CRAB ORCHARD - A visitor to Mary and Mahlon Byler's Kountry Kitchen Store has to be persistent.
Although visitors are directed to the store by a sign on Ky. 39 north of Crab Orchard, just at the point where motorists might be ready to give up on the narrow, winding road, a final sign directs them to the Bylers' neat, Amish homestead.
"It is surprising how many people find us," said Mary Byler of the store the couple have operated at 902 Swamper Road for the past six years. The Bylers have been making and selling their her own homemade jams, jellies and candies for seven years, she said.
The store contains some distinctly Amish items, such as crossword puzzles of Amish scenes, but there also is a wide selection of "hard-to-find" items such as stainless-steel cutlery, hurricane lamps, and Rhythm Magic Motion clocks that play show tunes as the faces break down and put on a show of their own.
Byler also makes rugs on a loom in the store and will make them to order for customers who prefer to pick out their own colors.
The Kountry Kitchen Store is one of a number of Amish retail establishments that have sprung up in recent years as about 80 Amish families have located in the area.
Store sells furniture made by craftsmen
Three miles north of Crab Orchard on Ky. 39, Henry and Dena Beachy have Creekside Acres Furniture, which sells furniture made by craftsmen in the large Amish community in Holmes County, Ohio. The furniture is mostly oak, but there's a smattering of hickory and cherry pieces as well.
"All of our furniture is very substantial," Dena Beachy said. "It's not pressed wood. It's the real stuff."
The store has been open for about two years. The Beachys purchased it last summer and are in the process of expanding the display area.
The store has a substantial inventory of mirrors, bedroom sets, dining room sets, china hutches, gentleman's chests, entertainment centers and other items in a variety of styles. Customers also may order from catalogues of furniture made by the Ohio craftsmen.
Most of their customers have learned about the store through word of mouth, Dena Beachy said. "They are mostly people from the surrounding area, and they tell other people about us," she said.
Food sold in bulk
Farther north from the furniture store on Ky. 39 at Preachersville is Granny's Country Store and Bulk Foods, which has been operated by Esther Troyer since 1999. The store sells bulk flour, sugar, grains, pasta, cocoa and candies in addition to jars of relish, honey and other items.
Most of the items in her store require some serious cooking or baking to make into a meal, but she is getting more "ready to fix things," such as soup mixes, she said.
"We try and keep it as fresh as I can," she said of the bulk food items sold in the store. "I don't order more than I feel we can use."
In addition to local customers, Troyer said the store draws visitors from Richmond, Berea, Lancaster and Lexington.
"We were quite busy before Thanksgiving," Troyer said. "At times, it was almost hopeless to get caught up" in keeping the shelves stocked.
She said she gets "girls from the church" to work out at the store when she needs some extra help.
Canvas-tarpaulin shop supplements greenhouse
At 2620 Preachersville Road, about 2 1/2 miles off of U.S. 150 south of Stanford, another Amish merchant, David Yoder, recently opened a canvas-tarpaulin shop to supplement the greenhouse he has operated there for about nine years.
"I'm hoping to have it take off pretty good where I can stay home and make my living right here at home," Yoder said of the tarp-making business. He said it was difficult to operate the greenhouse and take carpentry and other jobs away from his farm.
Yoder uses an air-power sewing machine to sew the borders of the custom tarps he will make for just about anything anybody wants to have covered, including trailers, farm implements, lawn and patio furniture, boats, lawn mowers and cars. Customers can select the weight and color of the vinyl material to be used in the tarp. He prefers to have customers leave the equipment to be covered at the shop.
"I like to have them bring it here and keep it here until the tarpaulin is finished," he said. "To get it good and exact, I need to have it here so I can go out now and again and do a little bit of measurement on it."
He said learned about the tarp-making business during a visit to an uncle in Bloomfield, Iowa. The local response has been good so far, he said.
"People say, 'I'm glad to have this kind of thing coming up,'" Yoder said. "Farm implements, whatever people want covered, I'll try to get them covered."
For more information on these Amish businesses, customers may call the Kountry Kitchen Store at (859) 792-9633, Creekside Acres Furniture at (606) 355-7113 and Yoder's Canvas-Tarpaulin Shop at (606) 365-8404 or (606) 305-1031. All of the businesses are closed on Sundays.
Copyright The Advocate-Messenger 2005
Amish merchants offer a variety of products, services
By JOHN T. DAVIS
Staff Writer
CRAB ORCHARD - A visitor to Mary and Mahlon Byler's Kountry Kitchen Store has to be persistent.
Although visitors are directed to the store by a sign on Ky. 39 north of Crab Orchard, just at the point where motorists might be ready to give up on the narrow, winding road, a final sign directs them to the Bylers' neat, Amish homestead.
"It is surprising how many people find us," said Mary Byler of the store the couple have operated at 902 Swamper Road for the past six years. The Bylers have been making and selling their her own homemade jams, jellies and candies for seven years, she said.
The store contains some distinctly Amish items, such as crossword puzzles of Amish scenes, but there also is a wide selection of "hard-to-find" items such as stainless-steel cutlery, hurricane lamps, and Rhythm Magic Motion clocks that play show tunes as the faces break down and put on a show of their own.
Byler also makes rugs on a loom in the store and will make them to order for customers who prefer to pick out their own colors.
The Kountry Kitchen Store is one of a number of Amish retail establishments that have sprung up in recent years as about 80 Amish families have located in the area.
Store sells furniture made by craftsmen
Three miles north of Crab Orchard on Ky. 39, Henry and Dena Beachy have Creekside Acres Furniture, which sells furniture made by craftsmen in the large Amish community in Holmes County, Ohio. The furniture is mostly oak, but there's a smattering of hickory and cherry pieces as well.
"All of our furniture is very substantial," Dena Beachy said. "It's not pressed wood. It's the real stuff."
The store has been open for about two years. The Beachys purchased it last summer and are in the process of expanding the display area.
The store has a substantial inventory of mirrors, bedroom sets, dining room sets, china hutches, gentleman's chests, entertainment centers and other items in a variety of styles. Customers also may order from catalogues of furniture made by the Ohio craftsmen.
Most of their customers have learned about the store through word of mouth, Dena Beachy said. "They are mostly people from the surrounding area, and they tell other people about us," she said.
Food sold in bulk
Farther north from the furniture store on Ky. 39 at Preachersville is Granny's Country Store and Bulk Foods, which has been operated by Esther Troyer since 1999. The store sells bulk flour, sugar, grains, pasta, cocoa and candies in addition to jars of relish, honey and other items.
Most of the items in her store require some serious cooking or baking to make into a meal, but she is getting more "ready to fix things," such as soup mixes, she said.
"We try and keep it as fresh as I can," she said of the bulk food items sold in the store. "I don't order more than I feel we can use."
In addition to local customers, Troyer said the store draws visitors from Richmond, Berea, Lancaster and Lexington.
"We were quite busy before Thanksgiving," Troyer said. "At times, it was almost hopeless to get caught up" in keeping the shelves stocked.
She said she gets "girls from the church" to work out at the store when she needs some extra help.
Canvas-tarpaulin shop supplements greenhouse
At 2620 Preachersville Road, about 2 1/2 miles off of U.S. 150 south of Stanford, another Amish merchant, David Yoder, recently opened a canvas-tarpaulin shop to supplement the greenhouse he has operated there for about nine years.
"I'm hoping to have it take off pretty good where I can stay home and make my living right here at home," Yoder said of the tarp-making business. He said it was difficult to operate the greenhouse and take carpentry and other jobs away from his farm.
Yoder uses an air-power sewing machine to sew the borders of the custom tarps he will make for just about anything anybody wants to have covered, including trailers, farm implements, lawn and patio furniture, boats, lawn mowers and cars. Customers can select the weight and color of the vinyl material to be used in the tarp. He prefers to have customers leave the equipment to be covered at the shop.
"I like to have them bring it here and keep it here until the tarpaulin is finished," he said. "To get it good and exact, I need to have it here so I can go out now and again and do a little bit of measurement on it."
He said learned about the tarp-making business during a visit to an uncle in Bloomfield, Iowa. The local response has been good so far, he said.
"People say, 'I'm glad to have this kind of thing coming up,'" Yoder said. "Farm implements, whatever people want covered, I'll try to get them covered."
For more information on these Amish businesses, customers may call the Kountry Kitchen Store at (859) 792-9633, Creekside Acres Furniture at (606) 355-7113 and Yoder's Canvas-Tarpaulin Shop at (606) 365-8404 or (606) 305-1031. All of the businesses are closed on Sundays.
Copyright The Advocate-Messenger 2005
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