Dutchman's Store, Cantril

On a sunny Saturday morning, we took a trip to the Dutchman’s Store in Cantril, Iowa. We went through the country, on 2 lane paved roads without much shoulder, past the fields of oats starting to turn color, the ditches full of wild orange daylilies, past newly baled hay. You can tell you are getting into Amish country when you see the “watch out for horse-drawn vehicles” signs, and there are “horse apples” on the road. We went through Eldon, Iowa, home of the American Gothic house in the famous Grant Wood painting and stopped to snap a photo of Valley #3 school and the horse-drawn school bus in the local park in tiny Douds.

We saw big farm auction just outside of Cantril, with quilts hanging on the porch, and Amish ladies on the porch, and Amish men looking over horse drawn equipment and chatting by their buggies. At another Amish farm, the yard was filled with buggies.

The Dutchman’s fills an entire block in Cantril, and is filled with bulk foods, and entire room of school books, a huge fabric department especially for Amish quilters, and clothing, shoes and boots and cooking and canning supplies. They also had a large, very busy meat and deli counter in the back. I purchased a sleeve of good, thick, gold-tone regular mouth canning lids with plenty of sealing compound for $35.95 for 345 of them. That’s about a year’s worth for me at about 10¢ apiece. They also had steam juicers, all kinds of stock pots, huge stainless bowls, crocks of all sizes, even old-style rubber canning rings, etc., etc. They had a nice variety of china dishes, tea sets, and glassware.

We came home through Drakesville and Moravia and Bloomfield, all Amish areas. Iowa has had a June of heavy rain, and the creeks and rivers we crossed are swollen. Many fields are water soaked after torrential rains and high winds both yesterday morning and evening. But Iowa is so blessed with good soil that everything still looks great, and we also saw some great kitchen gardens and plenty of livestock all along the way.

Click on the bottom left corner of the photos to enlarge them.