Martin Schmucker is sitting on a brown plaid sofa at the front of his store, occasionally stroking his long, gray beard as he tells a story about a supplier from out of state.

The vendor was told that the way to make a delivery was to go down Doty Road and look “for the green house.”

Schmucker watched the vendor’s truck go by in one direction, and then the other, until it finally stopped in his parking lot.

“I went from one end of Doty Road to the other, and there is no green house,” the exasperated driver related. “And then I realized, “ ‘Oh, the greenhouse!’ ”

The story gives the genial Schmucker, who is Amish, a good chuckle. And it also illustrates something important about the region’s Amish country food markets.

It helps to know exactly what you’re looking for.

Even though Schmucker’s Produce Farm and Greenhouse has been in business since 1964, it doesn’t have a sign on the property, something not uncommon among Amish-owned businesses. Many do little or no advertising, and a few don’t have phones.

But lately, more people have been finding their way to Amish food sellers, sometimes driving long distances to shop, says Gary Zehr, president of the Merchants Association in Shipshewana, a regional mecca for those seeking Amish-style food.

Lately, more are straying from the tourist-beaten path to discover food purveyors – even using the bulk and specialty markets, bakeries and meat and cheese shops for periodic grocery shopping, he says.

“We have seen a small increase in the number of (food-related) outlets, but we’ve seen a lot getting much larger,” says Zehr. “We’ve noticed a big increase in people coming from Fort Wayne and Chicago and Michigan to get that type of food.”

The Chupps family’s E&S Sales at 1265 N. Indiana 5 in Shipshewana has nearly doubled the size of the store recently. Most days, this granddaddy of Amish groceries has a long line of buggies and patient horses parked outside, as well as a parking lot full of cars.

The market now includes an ice cream shop and fresh produce along with a huge assortment of staples – including bulk flours and other baking needs, rices, grains, nuts, dried fruits, candies, unusual cheeses, soup mixes, canned goods, herbs, spices, flavorings and even cleaning supplies.

The tough economy may be helping business, says Jim Gerig, president of the Grabill Chamber of Commerce.

He points to Grabill Country Sales at 13813 Fairview Drive as a place where customers from as far as Ohio find bulk dry goods “for much less than your typical supermarket,” he says, as well as baked goods, meat and cheese and specialty foods.

Elmer and Katie Lengacher, owners of Grabill Country Sales, have told him their business is fueled by a growing number of people who are doing their own baking, Gerig says. “And people are doing more cooking at home, choosing to save (money) over convenience,” he says.

Other customers succumb to cravings, whether for nostalgic frypan-ready, sliceable corn meal mush in an aluminum tin, tasty cashew brittle or gourmet bison burgers.

At the Amish-staffed Rise’n Roll Bakery and Deli in Middlebury last week, Angola-area resident Alex Hernandez was eying some cowboy cookies. Later that afternoon, retired Goshen residents Lydia and Bud Steury of Goshen stopped by E&S after visiting his sister in Topeka.

“Oh, the cheese. The cheese!” exclaims Lydia, when asked why she returns to the store, which proffers free samples of its more than 30 varieties.

“Also the noodles,” she adds. “I even took them with us to Florida on vacation. I could spend the whole day here because everything looks so good. And prices are wonderful.”

Still other customers, Zehr says, are looking to patronize local farmers who use healthier practices, raising livestock without hormones their produce organically.

“No! No preservatives!” says Howard Yoder, who scoots around the small Country Lane Bakery he owns with his wife Ida on a wheeled chair.

The shop at 59162 County Road 43, Middlebury, is known for its whole-grain yeast breads, caramel cinnamon rolls, 30 kinds of pies available for custom order, quick breads and pumpkin and chocolate and whoopie pies, a mini-cake concoction.

“We’ve had people quite often come from Fort Wayne and the Grabill area and Michigan,” Yoder says. “We’re not fancy, but we’ve got good food here.”

“Not fancy” would also describe Schmucker’s, with its linoleum floor and bare-bulb fluorescent lighting and adding-machine checkouts.

But a food fancier can find candy made from cashews dipped in caramel and white chocolate, dried pears and apples, jarred salsas with varying degrees of heat, rhubarb and other jams, fruit butters, regional honey and maple syrup. On Saturdays the lone refrigerator case – powered by a solar-battery generator, Schmucker says – has “green,” or unaged, Colby cheese. Several other cheese varieties and in-demand bulk butter are always offered.

In the summertime, fresh-pulled corn is delivered to the store through a window via a metal-wheeled conveyor belt.

Baskets of Michigan peaches and apples come from suppliers he’s dealt with for decades. Other produce – green beans, beets, tomatoes and peppers – is home-grown.

In the fall, there’s a tent full of squash, pumpkins and gourds, and in the spring, Schmucker’s sells bedding plants and vegetable starts.

Schmucker, whose business bears a New Haven postal address, says his religion doesn’t prohibit signs – he just hasn’t gotten around to installing one that recently arrived. It should be up by spring, he says.

He’s not displeased by the way things have gone without a sign. Word-of-mouth works as well.

“We started with a card table out by the road,” he says, “and it’s progressed to here.”

rsalter@jg.net