Speaker shares how Amish keep food cold year-round with pond ice

March 19, 2026 @ 8:53 amRural, Wingham Advance Times

Two Amish people drive two horses, dragging a cart with cut ice through a winter field.
A recent trip to a St. Helen’s Amish farm provided Wingham Area Historical Society member Brent Bowyer with a great perspective on how one family still lives without refrigeration in modern times. Bowyer was given permission from the normally camera-shy Amish family to take photos and share their story of how they use their frozen ponds to create ice blocks which are then placed in a styrofoam ice hut to store milk, cream and other perishable food stuffs during the winter months. (Contributed photo)

WINGHAM – During the Wingham and Area Historical Society’s first meeting of the year, Brent Bowyer described how one Amish family turns a small farm pond into their year-long refrigeration system each winter.  Bowyer has spent nearly four decades as a neighbour and customer of the St. Helens Amish—buying bread, hiring them for repairs and…

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Reporter

Cory Bilyea is a reporter with Midwestern Newspapers.