Our Story
Mandy’s Harvest shares traditional, time honored family recipes with you.
Grandma Mandy and Grandpa Levi raised their family of 13 children on an Amish farm in Shipshewana. Grandma fed her family from multiple large garden plots, harvesting and preserving hundreds of quarts of food every summer to feed the family during the winter.
Memories of running down Grandma’s garden path…
…picking peppers for sandwiches, shelling kidney beans, butchering chickens, and of course, picking grapes, strawberries, raspberries and apples, and watching Grandma and the younger unmarried aunts putting up food are treasured childhood memories.
Family Tradition
My mother passed those traditions down to us…
We spent many happy hours on our front porch husking corn, cleaning strawberries, and peeling & slicing peaches. Out-of-town city cousins from Indianapolis and Florida would spend summer vacation in Indiana with us country cousins, helping with summer produce harvest. Their enjoyment of this simple life created a desire to share these products with everyone.
Using Grandma Mandy’s original apple butter recipe for our flagship product, we hope you enjoy Mandy’s Harvest products as much as we enjoy bringing them to you. May you taste the flavor of summer memories in every bite.
Dorothy for the Hostetler Family
Dave, Dorothy, Tim & Dominic
Meet the Family
Dave & Dorothy are the owners of Mandy’s Harvest. They were both born into Old Order Amish families in the Shipshewana community. Although they are now Mennonite – they love to still follow their Amish heritage by canning & preserving foods.
Dorothy
Dorothy has been canning as long as she can remember – first as a child helping her mother Judy and Grandmother Mandy prepare fruits and vegetables and filling jars. The oldest of nine children, at age 13, her mother assigned her the task of canning 100 quarts of peaches for the family – helped by her two younger sisters Esther, age 11 and Rose, age 10. Mandy’s Harvest is her lifelong dream of owning a cannery.
Dave
Dave grew up on an Amish farm – planting and plowing with horses, caring for the farm animals, and harvesting crops by hand. He was also from a family of nine children who did many tasks on the farm and ate fresh and preserved foods from their large family garden. Dave enjoys preparing foods and sharing them with his many family and friends. He has been a volunteer on the Shipshewana Fire Department since 1997 as a way of giving back to the community he loves.
Mattie
Mattie is Dorothy’s right hand in the kitchen. She grew up in an Amish family in Pennsylvania and later moved to Shipshewana with her husband and children. Mattie and her husband Chris have 6 adult children and nine grandchildren. Mattie grew up gardening and canning as a way of life.
Sarah
Sarah manages the Mandy’s Harvest Market booth at both the indoor and outdoor Shipshewana Flea Market. She grew up in a local Amish Family and currently lives in Shipshewana with her husband and four children. Sarah enjoys meeting the many visitors to Shipshewana.
Doris
Doris was Dorothy’s best friend in second grade and then the friends lost touch when they no longer attended the same school. They are delighted to now be neighbors and Doris helps her old friend part time when the cannery is very busy. Doris and her husband Ivan have five daughters and five grandchildren.