MIDDLEFIELD — Amish history culture, scenic farms and countryside, plus delicious Amish Wedding food, will be featured in a segment for cooking host Rachael Ray’s TV show and Web site.
The segment was filmed Saturday in Trumbull and eastern Geauga counties.
The Around the World Productions film crew followed Ridgeview Farm owner and tour operator Sharon Grover on her Amish Backroads Tour.
Zsolt Luka, Around the World Productions’ producer-director, who is of Hungarian descent, was joined by Alex Boylan, a host with Rachael Ray on her cooking talk show. The crew, including Luka, Josh Bolton, and Andrew Boylan, filmed Emma Miller’s Amish Craft Shop in Middlefield, the Middlefield Original Cheese Co-Op, several other Amish-owned businesses and the End of the Commons General Store in Mesopotamia.
“We ended their visit at an Amish home in Troy Township for a typical Amish wedding lunch,” Grover said. “Here everyone was served the same type food the Amish serve at a typical wedding. They really enjoyed their visit, and we were excited to have them pick us,” Grover said.
The large red van, painted with Rachael Ray’s photos and called “Rach to the Rescue,” caught the attention of many people in the Geauga area Saturday. Luka said the California-based crew hauls a lot of its computers and camera equipment aboard but the van is not equipped for sleeping.
“We are making a number of stops over the next six weeks in 36 to 37 states. It’s part of the show’s Hidden Gems, which will be on Rachael Ray’s Web site in what is called a ‘webisode.’ The visit to Geauga County probably will be up on the Web site this week. It’s among the first. A portion of what we filmed may also get on Rachael Ray’s show,” Luka said when contacted Tuesday in Chicago.
Grover said the tour of eastern Geauga County was designed to give the film crew a glimpse of the nation’s fourth-largest Amish community.
“In turn, it promotes Geauga County as a tourist destination,” she said.
“For me, it was a once-in-a-lifetime event promoting Geauga County and the Amish back-road tours we do. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found Alex, Zsolt and the crew easy to work with. We sent them off with copies of an Amish cookbook for the show and other gifts to remember us,” Grover said.
Grover serves as president of the Geauga County Tourism Council. The Grovers’ Ridgeview Farm Web site first attracted the Around the World Productions crew as a place to start their Hidden Gems journey in Ohio, according to Luka.
“We just started filming this series. It’s all about seeing America through the eyes of the local people in their hometowns. We started in New York and are heading west for the next month. This is the first time for meeting Amish folks,” Boylan said as they departed after lunch.
Local News
Related Photos
Discussion
RV’s Rachael Ray to feature Geauga County Amish
- Local News
-
-
Murder suspect kills self at mother’s grave
Madison Township police officers found the body of a murder suspect in the Alexander Harper Cemetery on Thursday afternoon, ending a day-long, multi-county manhunt.
-
Presses stopped
It was June 23, 1969.
-
Airport takes off with a new name
A new name for the Ashtabula County Airport is winding its way through the regulatory channels.
-
Property owners must pay for meth labs in Jefferson
An ordinance requiring landowners to pay for the clean-up costs of clandestine drug labs was unanimously adopted by Village Council.
-
Elections board gets help with time-consuming tasks
A Xenia company specializing in election services will take on some time-consuming tasks that should help contain the Ashtabula County Board of Elections’ labor costs, members said.
-
Commissioners pay to get the business
Commissioners on Tuesday approved a $15,000 contract with Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County to provide business service representation on behalf of the county’s One-Stop job training center.
-
Grand Valley sixth grader wins Ashtabula County Spelling Bee
James Elliott, a sixth grader at Grand Valley Middle School, clinched his win of the 29th annual Ashtabula County Area V Spelling Bee by successfully spelling the words “physique” and “daffodil.”
-
Sports, academics to come together
SPIRE Institute will expand its educational base and accept international students into its sports performance programs through a partnership with the Andrews Osborne Academy, Ted Meekma, SPIRE management team member, announced Wednesday.
-
Conneaut Chamber lauds top citizen, ‘Champions’
Nicholas Iarocci, Conneaut’s 2011 Citizen of the Year, needed plenty of gulps of water to complete his acceptance speech Tuesday night.
-
Felony charge filed in robbery
An Ashtabula woman who police said grabbed a woman’s purse inside a Conneaut supermarket late Monday afternoon faces a felony charge in Conneaut Municipal Court, according to reports.
- More Local News Headlines
-
