This is an amazing aerial view of an Amish farm in Central Pennsylvania taken the day before yesterday. One of our reader's brother was flying a Piper Cub over the area and got this shot of a pond on an Amish farm where they were cutting blocks of ice which will be used to freeze food. I'm sure each community cuts their ice a little differently, but you can see that it is done in a very systematic, methodical way as evidenced by the square cuts of ice on the pond surface. I can see a couple of different structures on the property that might serve as an "ice house."
Methods of freezing food among the Amish are about as varied as the Amish themselves. And you can't always draw conclusions by how liberal or conservative a settlement is. I think maybe part of it has to do with how "agrarian" an area is and how much access to pond water there is. For instance, in the very conservative community outside of Geneva, Indiana many Amish just rent electric freezers for storing food. In this building there are dozens of floor model freezers storing everything from lamb chops to pies each rented out by a family The facility is owned by a non-Amish man who makes a mint renting them. In communities that allow gas appliances many Amish own their own refrigerator/freezers.
I have visited Alymer, Ontario and Lindsay, Ontario during the dead of winter. Both of those communities rely on mother nature to freeze their food year-round. Teams of able-bodied men work at sawing out blocks of ice from frozen ponds. The blocks are then hauled back to people's homes and put into tightly sealed lockers (some the size of small semi trucks). The ice will keep through the long hot summer until the following winter when more ice is cut. CAPTION: an "ice elevator" carries blocks of ice cut from a local pond and into the area produce warehouse.
Prior to the Geneva community allowing freezer rentals, I would take Amish friends into town to buy ice blocks from a vendor. We would carry these suit-cased size blocks of ice with a pair of metal tongs. The ice would then be stored in ice chests in a person's cellar and food could be frozen quite well in those chests. With the approval of freezer rental I am sure that ice vendor is now out of business.
In more southern Amish settlements where frozen ponds during the winter are a rarity the Amish rely on either church-approved gas-powered refrigerators or buying blocks of nice from a vendor and storing them in ice chests. The ice blocks do a pretty good job at freezing food although sometimes ice cream gets a little soupy in storage.
Paula Osborn
It makes me sick that so many "English" make a mint by renting freezers and being a taxi to the Amish and plain people who need those services. Yes you need to charge for your items and services but "some" not all take advantage of their need and charge such enormous amounts of money. They know they have a captive audience and take advantage of it.