We left my Mom's on Sunday and drove to Pennsylvania. When we were on our way to our hotel, we saw our first horse and buggy.
Our first stop today was the information center where we got a quick history of the Amish and Mennonites. Then we went onto Kitchen Kettle which has many shops and a couple of restaurants. The scene below is from our walk from a candle shop to the main shopping area of Kitchen Kettle. I bought some jams and jellies, pineapple salsa and pumpkin pecan honey butter.
From the tourist center, we obtained a map that led us through some side roads of some great scenery and several shops. The first place we stopped on the drive was Mascot Roller Mills, which is a water powered flour mill. The mill operated for 230 years.
The guide was putting a scoop of corn into the plates to make cornmeal.
He let everyone feel it after it was ground.
Some equipment that used to be used.
A post office that was in the mill. We were told that when the postmaster inspector came through, they were told it was dusty. The owner of the mill told him they could have told him that before he came.
These are the rollers for the flour. We were told that this mill could process 8 bags of flour a day. He told us the name of a mill that became Pillsbury, I don't recall the name now, but in comparison, they processed 10,000 bags of flour a day so this was a small mill.
Jars of wheat, wheat bran, wheat germ, flour and graham. Whole wheat flour was called Graham because he was the guy that discovered that the wheat bran and wheat germ had Vitamin B in them and were good for human consumption as well. Apparently people would ask for a bag of Graham vs. whole wheat flour.
We ended the tour with a video that was made in the early 80s of Franklin Ressler who owned and operated the mill only shutting it down when he went off to World War II.
Leaving the mill, this team of 8 horses came around the corner.
We went next door to the Ressler family home and had a tour there. You can't take pictures inside the homes, so I have nothing to share from here. All of the items in the home were belongings of the family.
We went to dinner after the tours and then we continued on our drive.
More scenery. Lovely area.
I've been pretty good about not taking pictures of the Amish around here. Obviously, I snagged them with the horses. The man at the tourist center said it used to be that they didn't like to have their picture taken and some still don't but times have changed.
This was our day in Intercourse, PA.
