How to keep chickens from cracking and eating eggs

Once a chicken gets a taste of egg yolk it’s hard to stop them.

There are just three options, catch the culprit(s), try and break the habit or invest in a nesting system that removes and protects the eggs from the chickens as soon as they are laid.

Next, to collecting the eggs as frequent as possible, the easiest solution is probably to just identify the perpetrator(s) and make a big pot of chicken stew.

This is not always easy and does take some detective work.

Depending on the size of your flock, there may be more than just one.

You might just luck out by checking the beaks for possible egg yolk residue.

If you just have a few, try the process of elimination by isolating them as best as possible to identify the culprit.

Rotate them through a temporary holding pen and nesting box. As you remove one hen from the flock for a couple days at a time and the issue stops you will know you have the culprit.

If you find one nest(s) that seems to be hit the most and you have a wall or post directly in front of the nest, consider going high tech with a surveillance video cam and see if you can capture the perpetrator in action.

Surprisingly it may not actually be a chicken but another egg seeking predator, such as a rat or snake that you may only capture on video.

In using a video, you might need some type of ID system to mark the back of the head of the hens if there’s not already distinguishing features.

Some water based face paints dabbed on the comb or feathers, or a number when they are on the roost will help to provide the positive ID.

If you have a large flock and want to try breaking the habit, some decoy eggs might work. These can be either wooden or plastic eggs. Some have even used golf balls.

The concept is to collect the fresh eggs soon as possible and replace them with a decoy egg. As the chickens peck the decoy eggs hopefully they will discover they are wasting their time and will give up.

Others indicated they have had success by taking a regular egg and poking just a large enough hole to remove the yolk and egg white and then replacing it with mustard.

If you're just tired of messing with broken and cracked eggs and want to upgrade your nesting boxes consider roller egg nesting boxes.

The name basically says it all. The egg rolls forward into a covered compartment as soon as they are laid to prevent them from being seen by the chickens.

You can find roller egg nesting box plans online if you want to try and build them yourself. You can also find galvanized metal roll-a-way egg nesting boxes online, such as the ones from www.CottageCraftWorks.com.

The galvanized nesting boxes are an initial investment but they are built for many years of use. The key is to find them made without any plastic parts that will eventually break off.

If you need to purchase new lumber to build the nesting boxes from plans, really sharpen the pencil and figure out the material cost.

With the price of new lumber, these readymade galvanized ones may not be that much difference.

You will have a labor factor on either type, as you will either be building wooden ones or assembling the metal ones. But there’s no measuring or cutting so assembly won't be as much labor time.

Metal nesting boxes are also easier to clean and disinfect than wooden nest in case you ever have an infestation problem.

The nesting boxes can be lifted and taken outside to pressure wash and disinfect.

Roller nesting boxes do take some changes in the way you work with them. They are designed to use little nesting material or none at all so that the eggs can roll forward into a covered compartment.

As odd and foreign as this might sound, doing completely away with nesting material also means less chance of infestations.

The nesting boxes from Cottage also come with a wooden training egg to encourage the chickens to begin nesting.

If your chickens are accustomed to nesting boxes with bedding, you can start out with full nesting material, to begin with, and then gradually pull out the material until you have completely eliminated it.

The quicker that you can capture the eggs into the roll away compartment the faster you will be able to have your eggs protected.

Kick Scooters, Kick Bikes are easy and fun to ride for all ages

Scooters look like a bicycle but have an open standing foot board in place of the seat and pedals. Riders propel using one foot to push back.

US kick scooter bike enthusiast is finding USA Amish made kick scooters to be a great equivalent to the European models.

They can enjoy the benefits of a kick scooter without having to pay the hefty prices for the imported European models.

One of the more popular European 26/20 aluminum kick bikes is not even available in the US.

The US Amish made LA MX 26/20 Aluminum Kick Scooter may not look as sleek as the Finnish Max 26/20 model.

However, for the price and many of equivalent features it defiantly is something to look at.

US Amish scooters use wheel sizes ranging from 12" up to 26”.

The larger sizes even have aluminum racing rims and high-pressure tires.

These are a far cry from those little Red Radio scooters that many of us grew with as a kid.

Larger wheeled kick scooters are also more practical over the small aluminum sidewalk scooters.

The Amish scooters can take you down standard bike paths and just about anywhere else that you might ride a standard bike.

You can also get from point A to point B in about a third of the time as walking.

A push scooter or kick bike is called such because the rider uses a push and kick back motion with one leg to propel forward.

There's no seat or pedals, just an open footboard to stand on and kick from.

Standard bicycles with their narrow seats are not the most comfortable for some people to ride, especially as they become older.

Climbing on and then trying pedal and balance a traditional bike is also an issue for many who have aging issues.

Many who enjoyed biking have just given up the prospects of ever riding again.

Kick scooters just might allow those to enjoy biking once again.

They are easy to step on and off the platform, even with a full skirt.

Like most things one product does not fit all

One group of Kick Bikers who enjoy the sport of racing kick bikes want them just for off road extreme sports.

This is one of the exciting aspects of kick biking that has made the European models so popular.

Like fine European automobiles, European manufacturers promote their kick bikes for racing in extreme sports.

The Amish kick scooters are probably not the best suited for this type of off-road use.

They are built for the more casual and conservative users.

History of the Amish kick scooters

The Amish kick scooters have been used by the Pennsylvanian Amish since the mid-1970s.

From Amish children to adults you will see Amish families in Pennsylvanian using these kick scooters for trips to school, town, and work.

You may have even seen them on some of the recent television shows about the Amish communities located in Pennsylvanian.

Local Amish church leaders prescribe the rules on how the Amish will use transportation devices and how they will be designed.

For whatever the reason, they have banned the use of a peddled bicycle in the Pennsylvanian Amish communities.

In one Amish community in Pennsylvanian, the Amish Bishop will only allow his members to use the smaller 12" scooters.

In that area of Pennsylvanian, you will only see the smaller scooters being used by both children and adults.

Other Amish communities such as in Ohio and Indiana allow standard bicycles.

Kick Bikes may provide a good work out

For those who would like to up their calorie burns over walking but are just not into running or riding a traditional bicycle, a kick scooter just may be the answer.

You can walk alongside a kick scooter, step on and scoot and then walk again as many time as you want to alternate your workout routine.

Kick scooters are not required to maintain a certain speed to balance either.

They are very low to the ground so that a person can just step off when they rather walk a bit or jump back on and speed up the calorie burn.

Kick scooters may also provide a good core body workout with the motions required to push off and scoot. If one leg gets tired the rider can switch over and kick push with the opposite leg.

Those who have had a partial stroke or knee injury may find that a kick scooter allows them to keep one leg more stationary while they use their good leg to propel.

The Amish kick scooters provide the lowest ground clearance on the market.

This is very important in having less fatigue while not having to use the foot and leg to reach as far down as pushing back off a higher platform.

This also may cause less stress on the stationary leg and knee that often occurs when the body must stoop further down in order for the propelling leg and foot to touch the ground and cycle through the push.

Push scooters may appear hard to use, but were probably one of the first bikes that we learned to ride as a kid.

For those who just want to have a nice ride, learning the glide pattern is when you hit the sweet spot.

Find your Amish Kick Scooter at Cottage Craft Works.com  Cottage Craft Works is a unique online general store providing high-quality Amish made products that are still being made with the quality and integrity of things that were reminiscent of the 1950s and 1960s

Stainless Water Hydrant Resist Air, Water, Soil Corrosion

Commercial quality stainless steel water hydrant resists corrosive atmosphere elements from saltwater coastal areas and acid corrosive soil conditions.

Made with a heavy duty stainless steel standpipe, stainless foot valve, stainless valve rod and stainless cam lock handle the Amish USA made 401 Freezless Water Hydrant is truly a stainless-steel hydrant while others may have a stainless-steel pipe and rod, they still use a brass foot valve that is problematic in some alkaline soils.

Corrosive conditions either by salt water or high acid containing soil conditions can destroy traditional galvanized pipe and brass foot valve water hydrants in very short time. Making them very costly and an inconvenience to replace especially when they are surrounded with a concrete slab or in the dead of winter when the frost line is difficult to penetrate for replacement.

Traditional water hydrants can also become very difficult to open and shut especially by children and women who routinely use them for daily animal watering and gardening.

Commercial applications such as parks and RV resorts depend greatly on frost proof water hydrants and generally find that the traditional water hydrants can become a maintenance nightmare when they are available for public use.

The Amish made 401 Freezless Water Hydrant available at Cottage Craft Works.com solves many of these problems.  It was designed by a plumber in Holmes County Ohio who had been serving area farmers and homeowners for over 30 years. On the typical water hydrants, he noted the failure rates were occurring from the galvanized pipe, the plunger rod, or the brass foot valve causing the need to replace the complete hydrant.

Holmes County Ohio is home to one of the largest Amish population in the Nation.  It also has pockets of high alkaline soil. 

John also noted that it was the Amish women and children who were doing most of the livestock watering and gardening as daily chores and seen the struggles first hand they were having operating the traditional hydrant valve handles.

John designed the 401 Water Hydrant and engaged an Amish manufacturing company to make them.  He designed a cam operated lever system that would open the valve with very little effort.  He also made the lever part out of stainless steel for rustproof years of service.

Instead of the typical iron or soft brass rod used in most hydrants to connect the top to the foot valve he used stainless steel. Then instead of galvanized pipe he also used stainless steel. To make the hydrant more bullet proof from corrosion the foot valve was also made from stainless steel. This obviously increased the cost but that is in keeping with the refreshing way that Amish people do things and why the 401 Freezless Hydrant is a good investment for the long term.

You see the Amish are just not as interested in making products as cheaply as they can, their focus is on making good strong dependable products that will last and not leave the consumer feeling as they were cheated after just a few years.

For over the past 10 years Cottage Craft Works.com has been the only company online offering the 401 Hydrant and out of those 10 years has only needed to send out one replacement valve gasket.  A solid indication of just how well this hydrant works even in commercial applications.

Cottage Craft Works.com is an emporium of old-fashioned quality made products. The owners have spent years on the back roads in Amish communities seeking out functional products for the farm, home, and garden. Ninety percent of the products the company features are USA Amish made in small Amish shops and factories. Most of the products are still made and handled by the Amish shop owners who have an outstanding reputation for high-quality products like things that were being made in the 1950s and 1960s

Chicken Nesting Boxes | Rollaway Egg Nest Box

CHICKEN NESTING BOX | ROLLAWAY EGG NEST

Chicken Nesting Boxes |  Rollaway Egg Box

Rollaway HD GALV USA Amish roll out chicken nesting boxes protect eggs. 2, 4, 8 comp and Community 48", 24". The original supplier of rollaway nest boxes.

Self-Sufficient Sustainable Living Backyard Chicken Roller Egg Nesting Box. 

CHICKEN ROLLAWAY EGG NESTING BOX 8 COMPARTMENT

ROLLAWAY EGG NEST BOX 48 INCH | COMMUNITY | FRONT & REAR TRAYS

Rollaway nesting boxes provide a cleaner more sanitary environment, increase production, protect eggs from damage and reduce labor time.


USA Amish manufactured! 

ROLLAWAY EGG NEST BOX 48 INCH | COMMUNITY | FRONT & REAR TRAYS

Rollaway egg nesting boxes are specially designed to allow eggs to roll forward into an upfront holding tray to keep them safe from chickens stepping on or pecking at them.

For more information, Visit www.cottagecraftworks.com
Chicken Nesting Boxes,Rollaway Egg Box,rollaway chicken nest boxes,chicken nesting boxes with egg drop

Compact Manure Spreaders | Hobby Equine Ranch Spreader

The Amish built E-Z Spreaders are built with thicker steel oversized chain and sprockets. These compact spreaders are built stronger than the competition.

The Amish just don’t brag or do a lot of marketing hype, simply the E-Z spreaders are the best-kept secret in the manure spreader market.

Just ask the leading competitor of the compact manure spreader market their overall weight and you will quickly understand that the E-Z spreaders are almost twice the overall empty weight in quality materials. 700 lbs. for the EZ 25 compared to 400 lbs. for one of the closest competitors. Other competitors are even more lightweight for near the same cost.

Most all the E-Z spreaders components are oversized. The Amish use 11-gauge steel while others use thinner 13 and 14-gauge steel. The Amish use 1 3/8” axles while the others use 1 ¼”. The E-Z spreader web chain is made of #50 T-Rod roller chain while others use #40.

Patterned after the old New Idea manure spreaders a favorite of Amish farmers for generations these E-Z spreaders are built just like the old-fashioned parts were made. In fact, many of the parts are still interchangeable and used by the Amish to rebuild old New Idea manure spreaders.

These little workhorses will likely spread natural gold nutrients on your hobby farm or ranch for a lifetime and on to the next generations.

While the competition is looking at ways to reduce the cost to maintain profits, the Amish just keep building them to last as they always have.

Compare with the control arms used to engage the auger and drive wheels and you will see that the E-Z spreaders still use the old-style implement ratchet arms attached directly to drive links. The competition uses lighter duty arms and some even use cables to attach to the drive links.

The E-Z manure spreaders are user-friendly and easy to maintain. The Amish go to an extra effort to add extended tube grease zerks making it easy to reach from the sides with a grease gun.

Typical compact manure spreader in the 25 and 30-bushel sizes include steel painted sides and durable poly lumber floors.

The larger sizes up to 75 bushel have a poly wood floor and poly sides.

The 25 bushel is easy to maneuver in tight stables measuring only 60” wide and 8’ long many appreciate the ability to get it in tight spaces compared to their previously owned spreaders.  The 30 bushel is only 1‘ longer. Both models are only 3’ tall for easy loading using small compact tractors and skid loaders.

Both the E-Z 25 and 30 are ground driven spreaders easily pulled with compact tractors or even ATVs.

Spreaders may be equipped with a fines pan for use with sawdust and wood chip manure beddings that will not work with a traditional manure spreader made to spread straw based manure. 

Since E-Z Spreaders are Amish made they can be ordered for horse-drawn operation and even ordered with steel wheels in place of the air tire wheels.

Cottage Craft Works.com is your online source for the Amish made E-Z manure spreaders. You may arrange for shipping or for factory pickup.

E-Z spreaders are being used from coast to coast and have even been shipped as far as Australia.

Also, see the heavy-duty Amish made oat crimper, roller machines. Fresh crimped oats reportedly provide better nutrition and digestive benefits over non-crimped oats while reducing the number of oats it takes for daily feedings. 

Cottage Craft Works offers two sizes of oat crimpers, the CCW #3 will also crimp and crack grains for other livestock feed.

Cottage Craft Works.com is a full line general store with Amish made products for the home, garden, farm and ranch.

E-Z 25 Compact Manure Spreader

E-Z Compact Manure Spreader Fines Pan Equipped

Heavy Duty Construction and Remote Grease Fittings

CCW #3 Oat Crimper

Amish heavy duty made oat crimper

Non-GMO Organic USA Grown Grains the Old-Fashioned Way

Learn more about the benefits of Amish certified organic grains. Amish framers grow organically using ancient seeds and all natural soil enrichment.

Long before the term “Organic” became coined, Amish farmers were growing crops naturally using all natural soil enhancements. These farming practices have been passed down for generations.

When the Amish settled into the Midwest in the 1800s many acquired land that was poor in nutrients and had to start enriching the soil from scratch. Bringing the knowledge and lessons learned from Eastern Amish settlements they began the slow process of clearing the land and building the soil using composted manure from their livestock.

Today many of the family owned Amish farms are now in their second and third generations of growing organic on the same land that has never been touched with modern day chemicals.

The Amish are stewards of natural health using only non-genetically modified seeds. Many save back enough seed for next year’s crop when harvesting to preserve the ancient seed chain passed down from past generations. When seeds are purchased they try and seek out Non-GMO or Ancient varieties from other Amish farms and stores.

The Amish still farm the old-fashioned way with a team of horses and horse pulled equipment. Most of the farms have never had a tractor on the land.

Because of the old-fashioned farming techniques, crop sizes and harvest are much smaller making Amish grains a premium find. Although there doesn’t appear to be any scientific studies to support this, some believe that Amish grown grain crops have better nutritional value and taste because of the type of enriched soils they have developed over the years.

An early spring trip into the Amish country can get stinky as that is the time when horse drawn manure spreaders are flinging out the natural gold in preparation of the planting season. Not something that you would experience in the Non-Amish parts of farming communities using chemicals and manufactured fertilizers.

The Amish also have problems with gluten and produce a full line of low gluten grains and stone ground flour from spelt, oats and other ancient grains. Even ancient einkorn wheat has lower gluten which, many gluten intolerant people can digest. Grains are processed in the same mill with wheat so none of the products are 100% gluten free.

The Amish are also very big into the sprouted grains offering sprouted spelt flour and sprouted rolled oats.

Sprouted Spelt

The Amish are also very industrious and resourceful. One Amish farm has even built a puffer cannon for puffed grains such as puffed rice, corn and spelt. The cannon is a large sort of popcorn popper that heats the grain in a pressure chamber until it explodes the kernels and shoots them out into another container.

Puffed Wheat

Cottage Craft Works.com is one source specializing in Amish certified organic grains mostly in 25 lb. bulk bags. It’s a good idea to purchase and split with friends and family for smaller quantity storage. Although, once you start enjoying these grain products you might be surprised how much you and your family will use. Many repeat customers order 25 lbs. quarterly.

Stutzman Farms is the Amish supplier. They are third generation farmers and organic certified by the  Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association (OEFFA)

Cottage Craft Works.com is a unique online general store offering old time vintage products goods and wares mostly from the Amish communities across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Amish farm that grows the grains and mills the flour is in Ohio.

Cottage Craft Works offers modern day Internet ordering but the orders are still processed the old-fashioned way and ship fresh off the Amish farm. The Amish farm has no computers and only the old UPS Log Book system so, electronic tracking numbers are not available. It is like a step back in time with old-fashioned mail order. You should expect up to 10 days for your order to arrive.

Amish Made Goods

Old-fashioned Amish goods, wares, products from over 100 Amish shops and factories across the US. Online General Store is an emporium for Amish products.

For over a decade this small family owned and ran online general store has been supplying some of the most unique and hard to find vintage products still being made and used in the Amish communities.

It was a dream born out of necessity for Paul and Elizabeth Stevens looking for old-fashioned products to help support their own self-sufficient lifestyle.

Their first trip into the Ohio Amish communities in the 1970s soon became an obsession to keep going back and exploring this fascinating lifestyle and the products being made and used.

They have spent countless weekends and vacations over the past 40 years on the back roads of the Midwest Amish communities from Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Along the way, the Stevens have made long lasting friendships with the Amish people.

When they decided other people might just be searching for the same products Cottage Craft Works LLC was born. The initial offerings began with Amish handcrafted hunting calls and then expanded into a full line general store.

It was rather an easy decision since they already had the connections and it was a time when the Internet was just becoming a major player in the way people researched and shopped for products from the comfort of home.

The attraction and ease of having all these products all together in one online store would hopefully be appreciated by would-be customers.

The results and the reception have far reached expectations as Cottage Craft Works has developed into a small business success story.

What makes this small company refreshingly unique is that they have kept the old-fashioned customer service once experienced in the small-town country store. 

Even though they are all online they still personally answer the phone and help customers walk through the product options just as if someone was right there with them in a store.

Themselves being frustrated with corporate voicemail or e-mail trouble tickets, the Stevens family are extremely responsive in connecting with customer questions or concerns.

What has also made the company more successful is the ability to bring back old time vintage items and replicate them exclusive for Cottage Craft Work customers.

Paul Stevens has his own woodworking shop where prototypes are built of favorite items being used in the late 1800s and early 1900s and then they have one of their Amish builders build them for the product lineup.

The Singer Featherweight reproduction folding card tables, a J & P Coats spool thread cabinet are just a couple of the products that they have successfully remade into production using Amish craftsmanship.

Cottage Craft Works goes beyond just selling you a product. While most online companies are focused on just pushing out an item, the folks over at Cottage Craft Works also provide the parts and accessories for many of the products that may be needed down the road.

For an example a Heller Aller PHB hand water pump can be easily found on the Internet, however, finding the replacement leathers and other parts is a different story unless you are shopping at Cottage Craft Works.

The Little Dutch Maid hand crank mixer is another great example. You can find one for almost $100 more at another online source, but you can save money and purchase a slicer-shredder and other options to go along with it only at Cottage Craft Works.com

Cottage Craft Works has become a respected leader in solid wood handcrafted Amish custom sewing cabinets as well as reproduction Singer style treadle sewing cabinets.

Other wooden items and furniture can be custom built.  The glass gun case has been custom built for judges and even a President of the United States.

The company offers several woodworking kits including the J & P Coats spool cabinet, a Studebaker Jr. wooden spoke kids wagon, sewing cabinet hardware, wagon seat hardware and ornamental vendor and peddler cart plans and hardware kits.

With the engraving option, the Amish handcrafted hunting calls are routinely ordered for gifts, and wedding parties.  

Many of the Amish products are so Authentic they have been featured in movies and on TV shows.  The peddler cart can be seen on a long-running soap opera show, the authentic wooden wheelbarrows were used in a Canada filmed Western and the lazy Susan turntables were used on a television series as the backdrop on a show about a Navy Ship.

Amish products are made durable to last for generations one of the reasons they are becoming very popular for non-Amish who want to escape the corporate greed of products with built in planned obsolesce.

You will find that the Amish products are just made heavier, and structurally more sound. This makes many of the products durable enough for commercial use. The heavy-duty aluminum dump trailers are made of thick aluminum and are being used by the US Military in a construction training facility.

From home goods, farm, and garden, to hand-turned stoneware pottery you will find it all at Cottage Craft Works.com  along with the organically grown Amish grains and flour to use with their wonderful off-grid Amish cooking utensils.

Vintage old-fashioned kitchenware, gadgets

Discover a treasure trove of old-fashioned kitchenware-gadgets still American made just as they were in the early times in the USA Amish communities.

Deep in the Amish communities back on some of the hardest to reach back roads small family shops and factories are still churning out high-quality kitchenware and gadgets from vintage American times.

Why you may ask?  Well the Amish you see still live a simple conservative life without grid connected power. They still depend on the most old-fashioned products to continue this lifestyle.

When the country moved forward with grid power during the mid-1900s the Amish were left behind and soon found themselves moving from what was the mainstream of products for everyone to having only things with electric cords or operated by electric kitchen appliances that they could no longer use.

This started the Amish manufacturing revolution not commonly studied or talked about. Basically, the Amish had to move into manufacturing or contracting with companies to continue a steady flow of off-grid basic simple vintage products for the future generation of Amish families who would continue the off-grid simple lifestyles.

American made products are very desirable. Amish products are in very high demand and here’s why.

The Amish haven’t been tempted by corporate and shareholder influences. 

The Amish still make or acquire products that they can use themselves and depend on lasting a lifetime well on into the next generations.

What has occurred elsewhere is a proliferation of jobs leaving America and the flooding of cheaper imported products has caused many Americans to revolt to the point they just don’t like to purchase anything that is not made in America bringing them full circle back to looking for the type of old-fashioned items still being made in the Amish communities.

Many are also concerned about the potential loss of grid power caused by some type of economic chaos, from terrorism as well as the uncertainties from around the world. Others are deeply concerned with the overall safety of our food chain.

Multiply all these concerns and understandably we have a rebirth of wanting to get back to the simpler life that the Amish seem to enjoy.  Growing their on food, processing, and cooking from scratch at home.

Many are discovering that the Amish made products work much better and faster than some of the modern-day clones of the old vintage products.

Sure, the Amish made products will cost more but, it is all about getting what you pay for.  One sharp USA made tool is much better than the stack of tools in the tool shed that isn't useable.

Most Amish especially the old order Amish settlements have very little access to the outside world over the Internet so people have a hard time finding their products.

One source is Cottage Craft Works.com an online general store featuring some of the hardest to find Amish products.

The owners of Cottage Craft Works started the company over a decade ago to provide the same products they had spent 30 years in discovering to others.

The outcome has been phenomenal according to Paul and Liz Stevens cofounders. The Stevens have also built the company on old-fashioned family values and customer service that they have learned in their previous years in dealing with the public. It is still a company where someone will answer the phone and you can talk to the actual owner. 

Handcrafted USA Amish Products, Goods, Wares, Furniture

The most comprehensive Amish handcrafted products, goods, wares, furniture on the Internet. Hard to find vintage items you won't find anywhere else.

Because the Amish take great pride in their workmanship and products, Amish American made products are in very high demand because of the high-quality craftsmanship and attention to durability.

Cottage Craft Works.com online general store features Amish USA made products from over 100 Amish owned and operated business.

Shopping the online store is like taking a trip back in a time machine to an old-fashioned general store full of vintage America products and goods.  It was a time when America made products lasted a lifetime and were handed down to the next generation.

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

The products at Cottage Craft Works were handpicked from over 30 years of exploring in the deep back roads of Americas Amish communities across the US.  Amish made vintage products are still being made and used just like they were at the turn of the Century.

The Amish just build things in an overkill mode to last. Planned obsolesces is never a consideration.

Products are simple, geared for common sense practical people and not to building corporate profits and shareholders demands.

The Amish practice conservative stewardship of the environment, a refreshing contrast to the prefoliation of cheaply made toxic products flooding into our country. 

In the mid-1900s the Amish who were dependent on the same products used in an off-grid America soon discovered those products were no longer being made in the mainstream as the rest of the country moved forward.

They began to develop those old-time products in small metal working and machine shops to continue having those goods and wares available for future Amish generations.

Many non-Amish who became fed up with cheaply made imported products rediscovered the Amish communities and began to purchase their products instead.

People began to flock to the Amish off-grid products just before the year 2000 when the Y-2K scare was making headlines about the real possibility of having to live off grid.

Many discovered those old-fashioned hand-operated gadgets worked very well and in fact sometimes even better than the modern-day versions.

The problem is how the cheaper copycat products are being marketed.  On TV actors, can make it look like kitchen gadgets cuts like butter when, it never seems to end up working as smoothly as the Amish USA made products.

As an example: the Amish made Country Egg Beater is a reproduction of the vintage Daisy Egg Beater and works just as smooth as the original ones.  It is very expensive and you could probably purchase as many as seven of the imported egg beater versions but soon discover they are very difficult and nearly impossible to use as a serious kitchen mixer.

In other words, you get what you pay for and one good tool is worth a dozen of lookalike tools kept in a drawer simply because no one wants to use them.

The same can be demonstrated with other cooking utensils to gardening tools.  Amish made products are just made to use to get the job done. The Amish depend on these products to feed their large families.

Cottage Craft Works is selling reproduction treadle sewing cabinets for the Janome 712T treadle sewing machine. Surprisingly they are selling them faster to non-Amish women as to Amish.  Many women feel they can better control the speed of the treadle sewing machines over the electric sewing machines and want the nostalgic cabinet in their sewing rooms.

Living simple off the grid the Amish may not have the luxuries of dishwashers or clothes dryers but they still have mounds of dishes and dirty clothes produced by their large families. 

They compensate by using Amish made drying racks like a stainless-steel dish drainboard to use next to the kitchen sink and folding wall and floor clothes drying racks, which are very popular in homes where people have the modern-day luxuries.

The extra-large kitchen drainboard is perfect to dry those oversized commercial pots and pans even in the most upscale kitchens.  Laundry drying racks are just handy to have around from the mud room to the garage for hanging up wet coats and delicate items that can’t be placed in a dryer.

Surprisingly those that do practice environmentally air drying quickly note the savings in the electricity it takes to dry a load of heavy items like blue jeans.

Take a stroll through this online emporium of old-fashioned Amish products, goods, wares and furniture, to rediscover a forgotten past of American history still available in this most modern day world. www.cottagecraftworks.com

  

Christmas Shopping 2016 at Cottage Craftworks

Christmas Shopping 2016 at Cottage Craft Works

Cottage Craft Works, is really, truly that unique general store you used to remember going to when you were a kid, picking out the candy at the counter and ogling at all of the new equipment that had just come in from the nearest big city on the back of a Ford pickup truck. We've just modernized things a bit, so you know, you can view it from the comfort of your home.