Prudent and Practical

Hi all,

In an effort to add a little more personality to the blog, I’d like to start sharing bits and pieces of my non-make-an-attempt-at-everything life.  This is because although I’m usually doing something that results in a very cool end product, I feel the need to show you that I really do get out of the house and do other things… sometimes

So for my first attempt at this, I’d like to share with you one of my favorite places to go: Kalona, Iowa.  After doing some research, I found out that the Kalona area has the largest Amish and Mennonite settlement west of the Mississippi River!  You’ll never visit Kalona without seeing a barn quilt (pictured below) or a few buggies making their way through the town or countryside.

There are a lot of unique stores, a quilt museum, and bakeries, but our favorite places to go are Stringtown Grocery and Twin County Dairy Factory.  Stringtown Grocery sells stuff in bulk and you can find some unique ingredients there too.  On our most recent trip we purchased burdock root, licorice root, sassafras bark, and fennel seeds to make homemade rootbeer-type drinks.  They also sell canning supplies, cookbooks, and seed.  We usually try to squeeze in a trip to the cheese factory because they sell excellent “squeaky cheese” – cheese curds that have not been refrigerated yet, as well as specialty cheeses, jams, and a few gifts.  We visited the discount store this past weekend for the first time.  This store sells scratch and dent items as well as just expired items at a very steep discount.  All three of these stores are located on the same road.

And if you go about 10 miles to the east, you’ll find good ‘ole Riverside, Iowa.  Any self-respecting Trekkie nerd will know that as the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk.  I’ve even got a photo of that as well as some Enterprise-esque “statues”.  Every June, Riverside holds Trek Fest and some of the celebrities show up too!