TREMONTON –\u00a0From the moment the window opens on the Yoder Family Kitchen food truck, customers often begin lining up for a taste of the family\u2019s freshly made glazed doughnuts.<\/p>\n
For Henry and Mary Beth Yoder, the popularity of their doughnuts was something they never expected when they began the business in the Spring of 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started cooking the doughnuts in May of 2022 and it just took off from there,\u201d Henry Yoder said.<\/p>\n
The idea came from Henry\u2019s brother and sister-in-law who operate a similar business in Virginia. The Yoders then developed their own version using a family recipe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe use a secret family recipe we got from my sister and her husband and tweaked it a little,\u201d Yoder said.<\/p>\n
Today, making doughnuts is a family operation. Mary Beth, Henry, Mary Beth\u2019s sister and their children all help run the business. Each family member has a job in the process, from preparing the dough to shaping, frying and glazing the finished product.<\/p>\n
The dough is made from scratch using a commercial mixer. Once the ingredients are combined, the dough is placed on trays and allowed to rise. The children then help shape the dough before it is placed in the fryer.<\/p>\n
When the doughnuts turn golden brown, they are removed from the hot oil and dipped into the glaze. The finished doughnuts are placed on racks where customers can watch them cool.<\/p>\n
No two doughnuts look exactly alike.<\/p>\n
Their irregular shapes are part of what makes the doughnuts distinctive, but the Yoders say the taste is what keeps customers coming back.<\/p>\n
Even on what Yoder considers a slow day, the family can make and sell about 1,200 doughnuts.<\/p>\n
The Yoders have lived near Tremonton for about 15 years and have raised six children in the area. Their food truck travels throughout Box Elder, Weber and Cache counties, allowing the family to bring its doughnuts to different communities and events.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe move around to different locations during the week and found the Ogden Farmers Market to be very productive,\u201d Yoder said.<\/p>\n
Doughnuts, however, are only part of the family business. The Yoders also operate a commercial canning business, making products such as jams, salsa and pickles.<\/p>\n
They generally make doughnuts Thursdays and Saturdays while spending the rest of the week working on their other food products.<\/p>\n
For customers who visit the food truck, the doughnuts are not the only thing that may catch their attention. The women and girls working inside the truck wear long-sleeved clothing and floor-length dresses, along with white head coverings known as kapps.<\/p>\n
The Yoders are Mennonites, a Christian religious tradition with roots in the Anabaptist movement. Mennonite groups differ in their practices, including clothing, worship and approaches to modern technology.<\/p>\n
For the Yoder family, their clothing and lifestyle are expressions of their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we are Mennonites, we don\u2019t do any online activity,\u201d Yoder said. \u201cWe have a friend who posts stuff on Facebook. We don\u2019t use the internet except for tax information and other modern technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family also chooses not to use television or radio.<\/p>\n
Their approach to technology is one of the things that sometimes prompts customers to ask questions about their faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get questions about our religion,\u201d Yoder said. \u201cWe are Bible-abiding Christians and we live simple lives. We do have values that prohibit technology. There are enough detriments out there. It\u2019s just the way we choose to live.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yoder said the family does not want their lifestyle to create a barrier between them and their customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t have to be afraid of us. We are just people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Yoders are part of a local Mennonite community of about 18 to 20 households, Yoder said. While some Mennonites in the area may use modern technology, the Yoder family chooses to follow its own traditions.<\/p>\n
For the Yoders, the food truck provides more than a way to make a living. It has become a way for the family to work together while sharing a product rooted in family tradition with communities throughout northern Utah.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re happy in Utah,\u201d Yoder said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n
And for the customers who line up outside the truck, the result of that family tradition is simple: a freshly fried doughnut covered in sweet glaze.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TREMONTON –\u00a0From the moment the window opens on the Yoder Family Kitchen food truck, customers often begin lining up for a taste of the family\u2019s freshly made glazed doughnuts. For Henry and Mary Beth Yoder, the popularity of their doughnuts was something they never expected when they began the business in the Spring of 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6884,15269,1281,32470,32472,32471,4815,4813,4811,4814,4812,3175],"class_list":["post-39586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-utah","tag-american-cuisine","tag-doughnut","tag-food-truck","tag-glaze","tag-henery-yoder","tag-mary-beth-yoder","tag-utah","tag-utah-dining","tag-utah-food","tag-utah-grocery-stores","tag-utah-restaurants","tag-virginia"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117367296929295182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}