AMISH GETTING IT DONE IN STRINGTOWN!

     Yesterday I drove down to Stringtown, which is a small area north of Kalona, to attend the Monday afternoon August 14, 2017,  "bulk"  Twin County Produce Auction. It is put on by the Amish in the area and is held in a new building recently built by the Amish and is located adjacent to the Springtown Grocery and behind and just NE of the Kalona Cheese Factory on Highway 1.

        Someone had told me about this "bulk produce sale" that is actually held three times a week. I was told that it was quite an event, and I thought it would be good to experience something new and different in terms of type of auction, culture, and lots of great food grown and produced right here in Iowa. 

        I was not disappointed. These Amish men (!5-20), who as I understand run this like a co-op, worked efficiently  arranging all the boxed produce in neat lines right up to auction time of 4PM. I have never witnessed more beautiful veggies in my life. Bright red tomatoes, large dark green peppers, large green beans, watermelon and on and on. All this produce was raised and furnished by local Amish families in the Kalona area.

        The big catch is that this auction is for those buying in bulk--restaurant owners, grocery stores, those canning etc. One grouping may have consisted of 12 boxes of big beautiful tomatoes with a dozen tomatoes in each box. If the winning bid was $18.00 the it was times the amount of boxes from a particular seller--maybe a local Amish farmer named Yoder. 

       It was a fascinating experience and the whole auction took just under one hour. I would encourage anyone that is planning a trip to the Kalona area include this experience in your day or week-end!