Category: Kitchen Wares

Amish Made Products

Old-fashioned online General Store offers Amish-made products, handcrafted goods, and wares from over 100 Amish shops and factories across the USA.

Many know of the Amish for their beautiful handcrafted furniture, quilts, and wooden crafts.  What most don’t realize is that the Amish are still making the old vintage non-electric products and goods that were being used at the turn of the Century.

These old-time products are still available online at Cottage Craft Works .com an online general store filled with hard to find vintage products being made and used by the Amish.

From solid wood, Amish, handcrafted furniture, retro vintage kitchen wares, to Amish organically grown grains and flour you will find it in this refreshing trip back in time when quality USA made products were made to last a lifetime and beyond.

While many marvels over and collect these vintage antiques, the Amish are still hard at work in their small shops and factories continuing to make these old-time products to support their continued horse and buggy lifestyle.

As the country rebuilt from the Great Depression and electricity became readily available a great shift in the types of products in demand also began to occur.

The country moved forward but the Amish way of life stood fast.  The old-fashioned off-grid products the Amish so depended on to support them soon began to be no longer available.

The Amish are very industrious and great business minded people so many began to either make those products again from the patterns and molds being discarded or they contracted with companies to continue making them for just the Amish people.

Even the Janome sewing machine company makes a treadle sewing machine for the Amish communities.  It has crossed over to become popular with non-Amish women who claim that it is easier to control the speed than their electric sewing machines.

People living around or within driving distance to the main Amish communities in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, have purchased Amish made products for years because of the quality and durability they offer.

It was not really until the Y2K that the buy Amish products phenomenon really began to materialize.  Before then it was simply buying American made to protest the massive loss of American jobs and the lacking quality of imported products.

The Y2K fear of losing grid power was a real concern of many who sought out the Amish off-gird products to prepare for possibly the worse.

Even though the clock struck midnight on the year 2000 and the world woke up just like another day, the discovery of just how well the Amish products worked brought on a new wave of people looking for the Amish American made products.

The reality of losing grid power for extended periods has materialized on smaller scales from more frequent catastrophic storms.  The threat of terrorism or an attack on our grid is still very real.

Adding into the blend to be less dependent on the grid and modern day products is a strong desire to escape the fast pace lifestyle and return to a simpler time.

Others looking to find safer food supplies are unearthing back yard lawns and turning them into vegetable gardens. They are finding the cheaply made imported garden tools are just not worthy of serious gardening to support a large family so they too are in search of American Amish made tools.

The proliferation of fast and prepared foods is taking a toll on our overall health. Cooking from scratch using all natural chemical free ingredients as the Amish still do is becoming very desirable making Amish made kitchen wares, products, and Amish organically grown foods also desirable.  Especially, when cooking for large families as the Amish do.

While most people won’t go back to the horse and buggy for transportation, do away with air conditioning, or even do away with television, the other aspects of living the simple life are gaining traction.

Most just want to once again have the opportunity to purchase an American made product that they can depend on for a lifetime as early generations were able to do.

The Stevens family founders of Cottage Craft Works searched long and hard for over 30 years to find quality Amish made products for their own use and now offer these hard to find oddities via their online general store at www.cottagecraftworks.com

Many of these Amish products are not available on the mainstream Internet or anywhere else. Cottage Craft Works has developed exclusive relationships with several Amish shop owners to supply unique products for them.

Products such as the folding Singer Featherweight reproduction card tables and J & P Coats thread spool cabinet were developed by Paul Stevens and then contracted with an Amish shop to build for just for Cottage Craft Works customers.

Categories: Amish made products, Hand Crank Kitchen Appliances, Kitchen Wares, Made in America Home and Garden Products, Off-Grid Self-Sufficient Living, Old-Fashioned Vintage Kitchen Gadgets Tags: Tags: , , , ,

Vintage kitchen gadgets, old-fashioned kitchenware

Old-fashioned vintage kitchenware gadgets from the Amish. Old time vintage products, goods, wares used by Amish self-sufficient off-grid lifestyle.

At the turn of the Century most, every household used some these durable kitchen gadgets and cooking utensils to prepare meals at home.

As electricity began to develop most people opted to become wired creating a monumental shift to electric-powered appliances and kitchen gadgets.

Interesting today families with the most modern gadget equipped kitchens typically eat more meals outside of the home than did their parents and grandparents who grew up in the early 1900s.

The Amish with their large families has held steady to the traditions of old-fashioned cook from scratch home cooked meals. They still prepare and cook all that food without grid power.

Because of the concerns of how large companies have manipulated our countries food chain creating less healthy choices many people are trying to turn back time to cook more family meals at home from scratch.

Many are also trying to become less dependent on the grid power concerned with its vulnerability from storms, terrorist and computer system overload and glitches.

They can become frustrated quickly because most of the hand operated kitchen gadgets of today are cheaply made copies of the originals used at the turn of the century.

The cutting edges dull very quickly, the gears don’t mesh well, the plastic parts often break or the product just doesn’t work at all.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the Amish began to see their mainstream suppliers of these vintage products disappear as the new more modern electrified items were in higher demand.

The Amish began to transform into making their own old time gadgets to supply the next generations of Amish families.

The scale began to tip back to the Amish American made goods when the large discount stores began driving down the prices with cheaper made imported products.  At some point along the journey companies also figured out the concept of making things to wear out quicker so that they would have the opportunity to resell the item again in a person’s lifetime.

The loss of American industrial jobs has created a strong movement to buy American made products.  Many of those products are made in and around various Amish communities across the nation using Amish factory workers.

The year 1999 really placed a spotlight on the Amish quality products as Y-2K buzz had a lot of people worried if they would have grid power when the clock struck midnight into the year 2000.

Even though the Y2K computer shut down never materialized the threat still remains a real potential of losing grid power for extended periods of time due to some type of attack on or a malfunction in the computer networks that control our nationwide electrical power.

Those who have experienced major storm damage can already attest to the fact of living without grid power for weeks and months has become a common reality.

Finding some these old time kitchen gadgets and cooking utensils is not easy as Amish off-grid also means off the internet.

Sure you can find all kinds of Amish handcrafted furniture and quilts online but finding the really good stuff comes to finding sites specializing in Amish self-sufficient old-fashioned products like Cottage Craft Works.com

Cottage Craft Works is a small family owned business who still answer their phone and provide old-fashioned one on one customer service.  The Stevens family have spent several decades exploring the Amish back roads finding vintage products for their own home and have been offering those products online now for over a decade to others who want to buy American made quality products.

Cottage Craft Works is one of the largest sources of Amish made products, goods and wares anywhere on the internet allowing for one stop shopping from the comfort of your easy chair.

You can explore this one of a kind emporium at www.cottagecraftworks.com

It’s like waking up in an earlier transformation back into time exploring an old country general store chalked full of vintage merchandise and wares.

 

Categories: Hand Crank Kitchen Appliances, Kitchen Wares, Off-Grid Self-Sufficient Living, Old-Fashioned Vintage Kitchen Gadgets Tags: Tags: , , , , , ,

Discover Amish USA Made Products, Wares, Goods, Furniture

Handcrafted Amish products, wares, goods, furniture. American made products are very desirable, Amish American made products are in even higher demand.

Cottage Craft Works.com is one of the largest online retailers of Amish USA made products from over 100 Amish cottage based shops and factories.

Shopping the vast online store is like taking a trip back to the late 1800s and early 1900s in a time machine.  It was a time when America made products were made to last lifetimes and beyond to the next generations.

Serving the general public for over a decade Cottage Craft Works has developed a solid reputation of old-fashioned integrity and customer service.

The folks at Cottage Craft Works have explored the deep back roads of America in search of high-quality Amish made vintage products that are still being made and used just like they were before the country moved over to electricity in the most rural areas.

The results of their searches have assembled one of the most comprehensive Amish product listings on the Internet with many hard to find items not available anywhere else.

Products and gadgets are made from durable materials for hand power off-grid use and work with ease.  Handcrafted furniture is made from solid wood to become family heirlooms.  Planned obsolesces is never a consideration.

Products are simple, geared for common sense practical uses and not to simply mass produce as cheaply as possible to sell products to the masses.

Somehow the Amish never got caught in the middle of Americas move from a self-sufficient conservative stewardship of the environment to a prefoliation of cheaply made toxic imported products to fill landfills.

In the mid-1900s the Amish who were dependent on the same products used in an off-grid America soon discovered those products were fading as the rest of the country moved on to more modern times.

They began to transform their farming and woodworking skills into small metal working and machine shops to continue to make and supply those goods and wares to other Amish communities.

Many Americans who became fed up with wasting money and throwing out the cheaper made products turned to the Amish communities to continue to purchase the durable USA made products.

It was not until the Y-2K scare that the general public took stock in the dependency on the modern times in their everyday life.  Amish products became in high demand as people prepared to live off the grid as the clocks struck midnight and presumably the computer controlled world would cease to operate.

A phenomenon was discovered by many that some of those old-fashioned hand-operated gadgets were actually easier and quicker to use than their electrical cousins.

Although you can find much cheaper copycat products being imported they just don’t work as smoothly as the Amish made products. Just a simple imported egg beater can be very frustrating to use compared to the Amish made Country Egg Beater.

The same goes on down the line with cooking utensils to gardening tools.  Amish made products are just made to last and to serve large families.

Many women are going back to the treadle sewing machines used by the Amish as they feel they can better control the speed of the treadle sewing machines over the electric sewing machines.  The Janome 712T sewing machine was built for Amish families but surprisingly it is one of the most popular items order with a reproduction treadle sewing cabinet from Cottage Craft Works by non-Amish women.

As simplicity goes so does the practicality of routine household chores. The Amish don’t use dishwashers but still take care of mounds of dishes produced in a day by their large families.  Clothes dryers are not an appliance that you find in an Amish home.  So, the Amish rely on air drying of dishware and laundry using a variety of drying racks.

A large stainless steel kitchen sink drainboard is a very popular item at Cottage Craft Works as well as the many different folding wall and floor clothes drying racks.

Many order the Amish organically grown grains and stone ground flour.  Whole and sprouted spelt is some of the most popular grain products as well as the rolled oats.

It would take an entire website to discuss all the wonderful Amish products available so take a look yourself at www.cottagecraftworks.com

 

Categories: Hand Crank Kitchen Appliances, Kitchen Wares, Made in America Home and Garden Products, Off-Grid Self-Sufficient Living, Old-Fashioned Vintage Kitchen Gadgets Tags: Tags: , , , , , ,

Made in America Stoneware Pottery

Made in America Stoneware Pottery. Select from mixing bowls, batter bowls, crocks, butter churns, water coolers, baking dishes, pitcher and bowl sets. personalized-crocks

Old fashioned made in America Stoneware Pottery is still being hand turned and hand painted. Stoneware pottery is dishwasher, oven safe, lead and cadmium free.

The old time blue stripe stoneware is the most popular items from Cottage Craft Works.com however, custom painted colors and personalization is available on all their stoneware pottery making this back-to-basics a popular site for gifts and future family heirlooms.

Cottage Craft Works carries the old-fashioned water coolers and water bottle dispensing crocks which people from all over the country enjoy knowing that it is made in USA without lead or cadmium, a huge concern with imported water drinking crocks.  Areas, where water restrictions and pollution is of concern, are turning back in time to these old-fashioned water crocks.

Cottage Craft Works reproduction stoneware butter churns are so authentic they are being used to recreate the past in living history museums and historical educational parks.

One of the most cherished cooking and baking kitchen wares in most every home at the turn of the century and before was the old fashioned blue stripe mixing bowls.  The 16” mixing bowl was well suited for a large family because it was perfect for mixing bread dough, mixing salads, and even the dressing for the Holidays.  Bowls were made in all sizes making them perfect for all kitchen task including baking in them. The bowls from Cottage Craft Works will take you down memory lane standing in Grandmas kitchen and licking the spoon from her mixing bowl.

Batter bowls were also a very popular baking bowl as they were large enough to make cake, pancake, and scramble egg mixes in the bowl and then easily lift with a large cup like handle and pour directly from the spout.  These old-fashioned reproduction batter bowls are still popular as wedding gifts for the bride who loves to cook from scratch.  Sizes are available in ¼ gallon, ½ gallons, and 1 gallon.

USA Pottery baking dishes are available in many different sizes from a traditional oval casserole dish to a covered New England style pot belly casserole dish.  A taller bean and stew pot are also available specifically designed to enhance steam cooking using less water.

Hard to find water and milk pitchers are also available in different styles and sizes.  The wash basin set is very popular for churches and religious cleansing ceremonies.

You will even find an old-fashioned stoneware bacon grease jar as well as other countertop spoon jars, spoon holders, and other vintage pottery kitchen wares.

Do expect to wait 3-4 weeks for custom and personalized items.  The small family owned shop in Texas that makes all the stoneware pottery for Cottage Craft Works still makes each piece by hand, so plan accordingly for gift ordering.

Cottage Craft Works at www.cottagecraftworks.com is a full line online old fashioned general store chocked full of quality practical wares and goods used during vintage off grid times.

usa-stoneware-water-coolerspitcher-bowl-blue-stripehand-turned-potterybutter-churn-dashercountry-blue-stripe-bowlsusa-water-bottle-dispensing-crockKombucha USA Stoneware Crockblue-stripe-bowl-setbatter-bowls-blue-stripesixteen-inch-bowl

 

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Affordable USA Kombucha Tea Stoneware Crock

Now an affordable USA Kombucha Tea Stoneware Crock. Sticker shock has discouraged many seeking to brew this ancient Chinese health elixir at home. Prices can range into the hundreds of dollars for a simple stoneware continuous brew fermenting crock.

The faithful customers at Cottage Craft Works.com turned to the company and asked if they could add a Kombucha Tea fermenting vessel to their extensive inventory of made in America stoneware pottery. Now for under $100 you can have your own stoneware Kombucha Tea brewing crock.

Kombucha USA Stoneware Crock

Affordable USA Kombucha Tea Stoneware Crock

home brewing kombucha teahome brewing kombucha tea

Cottage Craft Works pottery is all hand turned in Texas the old fashioned way still using lead and cadmium free materials and glazes. Best of all you can order with many different custom colors to fit any décor and even have it personalized.

The crock is not translucent so it doesn’t have to be kept in a dark place.  Most keep it right out on the kitchen counter.  It can be ordered with other kitchen counter pottery to match such things as a canister set

The crock holds 2 gallons of brew.  Active brewing requires a cloth cover for the mixture to breath during fermentation.  The Cottage Craft Works brewing crock comes with a standard pottery lid as a bonus to keep the crock covered when it’s not in use.

Typical brewing time is 7-10 days in warmer weather and 7-21 days  in cooler weather. Brewing time will also vary the according to the temperature of your home. Brewing time can be shortened by using a brew belt which warms the vessel up considerably. Pottery absorbs heat very well and can simply be set close to a heat source to speed up the brewing process.

If you plan to bottle your Kombucha tea for a secondary fermentation, the crock will produce approximately one dozen 16 oz bottles. The bottles are easy to fill as the crock comes equipped with a USA made poly spigot.

You can purchase the Kombucha Tea Crock online at  http://www.cottagecraftworks.com/usa-kombucha-tea-fermentation-crock

Cottage Craft Works at www.cottagecraftworks.com is an online general store featuring a full range of old fashioned goods and wares made and used at the turn of the Century when many depended on off-grid simple living  American made products.

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