Saturday Morning at an Amish Bakery

By Kelly Beasley

Prior to my first RV dump fail (a gross experience to say the least), I spent a week in Wisconsin with my new friends. The state was filled with rolling hills and neat lines of crops, spotted with cows and Amish farms! I had never really seen an Amish community until my new friends Ken and Rilla took me to one during my visit with them while my RV was parked behind their very organized (I’m jealous) home.

As mentioned in my first VIE blog, I met Ken and Rilla through my personal blog about my camping adventures. They kindly offered to meet, let me park right behind their home, and were the most amazing hosts/friends that I could have ever imagined having.

They provided me with many interesting stories and experiences, and here’s one of them:

One Saturday morning, they took me for a country drive around the roads that Ken frequents on his bicycle, as he is an avid biker and treks hundreds of miles per week. On the way, they wanted to take me to an Amish bakery in Dalton, Wisconsin—due north of their home in Sun Prairie.

We meandered along smaller country roads on our way there, Ken giving out interesting facts about the land or the area on the way. We drove over gentle hills and around blind turns, and we saw no shortage of silos and crop storage bins. There were strong smells of cattle, which clashed with the sweetness of the spring flowers growing plentifully along the road. We headed to the local organic farm, Sassy Cow. (I tried their ice cream and chocolate milk—so good!) Many cornfields were just sprouting, ready to create sustenance for us from nothing more than a seed, soil, and water.

Ken and Rilla educated me on how to tell that a farm was indeed an Amish one: First, there are usually no power lines going to the property. Second, the fields are planted and plowed using animals, so the lines are not razor-straight like machine-planted fields. Third, you might be able to tell an organic farm by the weeds growing naturally among the crops. And the fourth and most obvious testament is to see the traditional Amish horse-drawn carts parked at the farm.

Quite possibly my favorite scene of the day was seeing a hitching post for horses in the parking lot of a business, complete with hay racks for the horses, right next to parking spaces for motor vehicles. It was a Little House on the Prairie moment parked right next to our modern-day life.

After witnessing a few signs that we were indeed in Amish country, we pulled into the Pleasant View Bakery, with a large gravel parking lot and a shaded corner in which we parked—because of course we had my girls, Trixie and Gizmo, with us.

The bakery is only open on Saturdays. Due to this fact (and the quality of the goods) there is usually a line to get in. That day was no exception. We approached a line of about twenty-five people waiting to get in and made ourselves numbers twenty-six, twenty-seven, and twenty-eight. Chickens scratched nearby and children were playing outside (what a concept!). These tots don’t have any electronics to substitute for a real playground, and were entertained with only dirt and a small jungle gym. It was nice to see.

Pleasant View Bakery is small, and etiquette is to walk in line around the edge of the inside, picking what you want as you walk by it. It has a friendly atmosphere with lots of people socializing, carrying on about this and that, or sharing stories about their favorite items.

Pleasant View Bakery also has pies, cookies, doughnuts, granola, fudge, bread, and more! The bakery workers are all young women who wear the traditional Amish clothing, complete with the cap. The displays are simple racks—nothing more than the food items themselves with hand written signs telling descriptions and prices. There was no frou-frou attempt at presentation. The goods sold themselves by experience, trial, or word of mouth!

After about a ten-minute wait, we all followed the wall of goodies and chose our prizes. I got the granola, a bag of chocolate chip cookies, some honey, and two doughnuts. (Life is good!) All in all, the three of us only spent about fifty dollars!

The doughnuts did not make it home, and other delectable treats were sampled on the way. I can attest that this was the most delicious granola I’ve had in my life—butterscotch almond! I ate my entire four-dollar bag on my drive from Wisconsin to Montana and was seriously bummed out when I finished it, which I did not think would happen so soon since it was a good-sized bag. I am going back for more when I am in the area again. (Like four more bags!)

It was a new and educational adventure for me, and I’m so glad I was able to discover it with new friends—which I would have never had if I had not gone on this journey in my RV!