If you want to survive an economic collapse, a Civil War, or an EMP and other major disasters, all you need to do is learn from the only people who would hardly even notice them.
That’s why I’ve put together a complete master list of Amish hacks—packed with details you won’t find anywhere else.
Keep reading to discover all 75 of them!
DIY Home Hacks
1. The Amish Fly Trap – A simple vinegar, sugar, and dish soap mix attracts and kills flies.
2. The Amish Mouse Repellent – Sprinkling peppermint oil and cloves keeps rodents away.
3. How to Keep Bugs Off Windows – Rubbing windows with onion juice repels insects.
4. How to Make Rope from Grass – You can make durable, strong rope by twisting long fibers of dry grass.
5. Keeping Pests Out of Grains – You can store grains with bay leaves or diatomaceous earth to repel insects.
6. Why You Should Put a Nail in a Candle – A nail placed in a candle burns more slowly and evenly.
7. Making Soap Like the Amish – You can mix animal fat, lye, and rainwater to make a strong, long-lasting soap.
8. Use Dried Chili Peppers to Deter Pests – Add a few dried chili peppers in stored rice and beans to keep bugs away.
9. DIY Amish Survival Blanket – Making quilted wool blankets that trap heat efficiently.
10. The Bug-Repelling Candle – Beeswax candles infused with citronella and eucalyptus keep bugs away.
11. How to Make a Tick Repellent – Mix cedarwood oil with vinegar to repel ticks and fleas.
12. Using Pine Sap as Glue – Boil pine sap to create a natural waterproof glue for survival repairs.
13. Removing Stubborn Stains – You can remove tough stains if you rub them with salt and lemon juice.
14. A Natural Deterrent – The Amish often use thorny bushes like the Osage orange (hedge apples) around their properties as a natural deterrent. These dense, spiky hedges create a nearly impenetrable barrier, making it difficult for intruders to pass through.
There are many others tips you can follow to protect your home against looters and intruders – like how to make your home invisible after SHTF, the most common security mistakes you’re probably guilty of too, the hiding places looters never check and many other ingenious tactics that have worked against highly trained soldiers and terrorists, so you can bet they’ll work against your average disorganized looter in a crisis.
Food Preservation & Cooking
15. How the Amish Keep Bread Fresh for Weeks – Wrapping bread in a linen cloth with apple slices keeps it moist.
16. Storing Eggs in Salt – If you cover eggs in salt, you can extend their shelf life by preventing bacterial growth.
17. Lard & Tallow Making – The Amish render animal fat into lard (pork fat) or tallow (beef fat) for long-lasting, nutrient-rich cooking oil.
18. Solar Oven Cooking – The Amish can cook meals using nothing but sunlight by using mirrors or glass to trap heat.
19. How To Store Cheese – If you wrap cheese in beeswax, you can store it underground and it will fresh for months.
20. The Amish Trick for Keeping Food Cold in Summer – You can bury perishable food in clay pots filled with sand and water.
21. Making Jerky Without Electricity – Sun-drying or smoking meat preserves it without refrigeration.
22. Building a simple Dutch oven – Start with a heavy-duty cast iron pot with a tight-fitting lid. If possible, choose one with a flat lid that can hold hot coals for even heating. For outdoor cooking, you can dig a small fire pit and place a layer of hot coals at the bottom. Set the pot on top of the coals, then add more coals onto the lid to create even heat from all sides. If you’re cooking indoors, you can mimic this by placing the pot in an oven or over a wood stove. A well-seasoned Dutch oven retains heat efficiently, making it perfect for slow-cooking your stews, baking bread, or roasting meats.
23. Keeping Butter Without a Fridge – Storing butter in salted water keeps it from going rancid.
24. How to Keep Fruit Fresh Longer – Storing fruit in cool sand layers prevents it from spoiling.
25. Pickling Meat – The Amish also pickle meat in vinegar and spices to preserve it. This method can be used for smaller cuts of meat and is often used in dishes like pickled pork or herring.
26. Bread in Mason Jars – The Amish bake and store bread in sealed mason jars for long-term storage, keeping it fresh for months.
27. Storing Bacon Grease – The best way to strain bacon grease is to pour it in a jar, add water, shake, and put it in the fridge upside down. The water catches all the gunk. The clean grease will be solid in the morning. Pour the water out. (If you don’t store it upside down, the gunky water will be trapped under the grease.)
>> 20+ Food Preservation Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Stockpile
Animal Care & Farming
28. A Chicken Feed Trick – Adding crushed garlic and apple cider vinegar to water boosts chicken immunity.
29. How to Keep Chickens Laying in Winter – Adding warm mash and extra light in coops keeps egg production high.
30. Tending to Livestock Wounds Naturally – Applying honey and powdered charcoal helps with wounds.
Foraging & Making Medicine
31. Making an Antibiotic – Blend garlic, honey, and horseradish.
32. Anti-Fever Socks – Wet wool socks worn overnight help draw heat from the body, reducing fever naturally.
33. What Happens When You Burn Bay Leaves? – If you burn bay leaves indoors, you can purify the air and reduce stress.
34. A Natural Flu Shot – Mix elderberry syrup, raw honey, and garlic to fight colds and flu.
35. Clay Poultices – Use bentonite clay to draw out toxins, infections, and even venom from bites.
36. The Leaf You Should Place in Your Shoe – You can use plantain leaves to help relieve foot pain and inflammation.
37. Making Fire Water – Blend whiskey, honey, and medicinal herbs to warm the body and fight infections.
38. How the Amish Manage Sore Throats – Mix honey, apple cider vinegar, and cayenne pepper to soothe your sore throat.
39. Fighting Headaches – Rub peppermint oil on your temple to relieve headaches.
40. Soothing Coughs – You can make a syrup from onions, honey, and thyme which will help you break up mucus.
41. The ‘Superweeds’ That May Save Your Life – Weeds like purslane, nettle, and dandelion are packed with vitamins and can be lifesaving once supermarkets and grocery stores run dry.
42. Wild Lettuce for Pain Relief – Known as “nature’s morphine,” wild lettuce is a powerful natural painkiller. But if you don’t like the idea of running around trying to find medicine growing nearby, you can grow your own antibiotics, painkillers, anti-inflammatories, antiparasitics, antivirals – here, one of America’s top herbalists will show you exactly how you can do it.
43. Why You Should Burn Certain Weeds – Burning mugwort and sage repels mosquitoes and cleanses the air.
44. The Tree You Should Cut Down – The Manchineel Tree is highly toxic, causing burns, rashes, and even poisoning.
45. DIY Dandelion Coffee – You can make a caffeine-free coffee alternative by roasting dandelion roots.
46. The Cattail Survival Trick – Cattail roots are a high-calorie survival food that grows in wetlands.
47. Herbal Tonic for Liver Health – Milk thistle tea detoxes the liver and protects against toxins.
48. Making a Natural Antiseptic – Yarrow leaves stop bleeding and prevent infection.
49. The Sun Tea Trick – You can brew herbal teas in the sun – this pulls out medicinal properties without requiring any electricity.
50. The Amish Probiotic – You can ferment cabbage with salt to create homemade sauerkraut, a powerful probiotic for gut health.
51. Making a Soap that Heals Eczema – You can make a soothing soap by mixing oatmeal and goat’s milk.
If you want to check out other remedies like:
And 250 others that doctors don’t want you to know about, click here to check out the entire list.
Water Collection & Purification
52. The Water Bag Trick – Place a sandwich bag over a leafy tree branch to collect condensation for drinking water.
53. Boiling Water with Hot Rocks – You can drop hot rocks into a container of water to boil and purify it without a pot.
54. Using Moss as a Water Filter – Natural moss has antimicrobial properties that can help you clean water in emergencies.
55. The 100-Year-Old Barrel Water Filter – Layer sand, charcoal, and gravel in a barrel to filter out contaminants. This will make your water drinkable.
56. Using a cheesecloth – Filtering rainwater through cheesecloth and boiling it ensures it’s safe.
57. How to Collect Water from Plants – The Amish use cloths placed on grass overnight to collect morning dew for water. Or if you just want a quick way to make readily-purified water, you can build this easy project in less than an hour– watch here exactly how the Amish do it. This is a complete series of videos where you can see exactly how the Amish live without being connected to the grid, without shopping at grocery stores or pharmacies. This is the first time a camera has ever gone inside the community, as they are very wary of outsiders. I don’t know for how long they’re willing to keep these videos up – so I’d try to watch them all before they’re gone.
Exclusive: Watch Rare Amish Footage Revealing Centuries-Old Secrets – Watch It Before They Take It Down!
Survival & Off-Grid Living
58. How to Keep Roads from Getting Muddy – Spreading wood chips or straw prevents muddy paths.
59. Making Shoes Waterproof – You can make your shoes waterproof by rubbing beeswax and tallow into the leather.
60. The Egg Test – Fresh eggs sink to the bottom of a bowl of water and lay flat on their sides. As eggs age, the air cell inside the egg gets larger, causing it to float more.
61. How to Quiet a Creaky Door – Use beeswax or lard as a natural lubricant.
62. Why You Should Use A Copper Wire in Gardens – You can deter snails and slugs by wrapping copper around your plants.
63. How the Amish Prevent Ice from Forming on Windows – You can prevent frost from forming by rubbing vinegar and salt on the glass.
64. How to Keep Rodents Out of Storage – Place peppermint oil and steel wool in entry points to repel mice.
65. How to Make Survival Vinegar – You just have to ferment apple scraps and sugar.
66. The Amish Fire Starter – Mix beeswax and sawdust to make an excellent waterproof fire starter.
67. Using Wood Ash for Survival – You can use wood ash to make lye for soap, fertilize soil, and preserve food.
68. Plastic Forks in the Garden – The Amish stick plastic forks in the soil to deter rabbits and pests.
69. The Amish Battery-Free Light – An oil lamp with a mirror reflector maximizes brightness without electricity.
70. An Emergency Candle Hack – An orange peel filled with oil burns like a candle for hours.
71. How to Start Fires with Pinecones – Dip pinecones in wax and sawdust to make an excellent firestarter.
72. The In-Ground Greenhouse – Also called a walipini, this underground greenhouse keeps crops growing all year, even in winter. Check out the entire step-by-step process here.
73. The Amish Rain Barrel Drip Irrigator – A system using gravity-fed rain barrels to water gardens with no electricity.
74. Seasoning Cast Iron for Longevity – To keep your cast iron skillet in top shape, season it regularly by coating it with a thin layer of vegetable oil or shortening and baking it upside down in a hot oven for an hour. This creates a natural, non-stick layer that protects it from rust and enhances cooking performance.
75. Cleaning Cast Iron the Right Way – After cooking, avoid soap which can strip away the seasoning. Instead, use a brush or coarse salt with hot water to scrub the pan. Dry it thoroughly and apply a thin layer of oil to prevent rust. This method keeps the skillet’s surface smooth and non-stick.
I transcribed all these hacks directly from The Amish Ways Book, a one-of-a-kind physical resource filled with hundreds of time-tested survival tips straight from the Amish community.
For the first time, this 200-year old knowledge is available in a beautifully crafted physical book, written by Eddie Swartzentruber—someone who spent 16 years of his life living among the Amish. Secure your own physical copy today and 3 FREE GIFTS using my personal 76% discount coupon from here.
These unique methods make the Amish nearly immune to the collapse of society, equipping them with the skills to survive any hardship.
Don’t wait until it’s too late! Start learning these today!
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