5 Points Posts (April-June) & Your Suggestions
Surprising things found in Amish homes. Common women’s and men’s names. The best Amish foods. Unusual places Amish once lived. These are a few of the topics we explored in the last few months of 5 points posts.
We have new readers joining the site all the time (if you’re not an email subscriber yet, you can do that here and not miss any of these). So it’s good to catch up on some of these from time to time.
As we did for January through March, here’s a recap of those 5 points posts for the past three months:
5 Amish Communities I Want to Visit
10 Common Amish Men’s Names (And 10 Rare Ones)
10 Common Amish Women’s Names (And 10 Rare Ones)
5 Surprising Items Found in Amish Homes
5 Favorite Amish Foods
5 Surprising Places Amish Once Lived
5 Lesser-Known Holidays Observed By Amish
5 Amish Publications You Might Enjoy (And How to Get Them)
5 Ways Amish Light Their Homes
5 Southern Amish Communities
5 Common Amish Church Practices (Uncommon in Other Churches)
The 5 Hardest Things About Living With The Amish
The 5 Best Things About Living With The Amish
Some of these were suggested or inspired by your ideas.
With that in mind, feel invited to share any other topic requests in the comments.
I definitely read and consider them as I add to the running list of topics. So thanks for your brainpower and creative ideas.
I am always fascinated when I read about the Amish and their big gardens! I wonder like how much food they have to “put up” for the winter and to feed their families! Also, what do they can? Do they grow a lot of crops? Do they raise their own farm animals to butcher and eat? For example, do they raise their beef, pork and chicken and then process it for their families? I know they sell at roadside stands also.
I also wonder about their clothes lines. Sometimes, in a two story house they are strung very high. I was told that is so they can use a pulley and it goes right to the second story where they actually put the clothes away as they take them off the line! Just curious! Love these discussions and the ability to comment and ask questions!
Good topics Donna, some do butcher their own meat and chickens. Your question about how much needs to be canned is a good one. I’d like to know an estimated figure for say a family of 8 or 10.
Here are a couple of posts showing canned goods in Amish basements in New York and Tennessee. You can get a sense of how much there is. The first one (NY) is a family with 9 children:
https://amishamerica.com/amish-canning/
https://amishamerica.com/amish-pantry/
Interesting question on amount to can. My copy of the Ball Blue Book put out by the company that makes the canning jars has an interesting chart showing the “Amount of Food to be grown and canned for a typical family of 6 persons.” Just a few examples of quantity needing to be canned are: carrots 20 quarts,whole tomatoes 60 quarts,
tomato juice 120 quarts,peas 24 quarts, green beans 60 quarts,sweet corn 36 quarts, pumpkin 12 quarts, etc. etc . Growing all this, the labor in preparing it for preservation, all the jar washing, the inevitable jars that don’t seal, I’m getting weary! Storing all this would be a formidable chore in modern homes. And don’t forget all those root crops to be kept over the winter (potatoes to sprout, etc.).
I’m a little late here but thanks Carol for sharing that info. I’m trying to visualize how much that is, does sound like quite a bit of food and of course work and management. Have never been a canner but it must be a nice feeling to have a fully-stocked pantry.
Future topics
Hi Erik,
What about 5 Favourite hymns? Or maybe hymns in use in other churches that the Amish use as well, if there are any? A post on significant figures in Amish history would be interesting (used to belong to a Mennonite church, so know about 16th century, but not much about Amman and after). 5 biggest families would be a possibility (though maybe it’s been done already). Not sure if it is helpful to suggest genetic illnesses as a theme – though it would be possible to tackle it positively by identifying physicians and other healthcare workers who are pioneering care in this area). And on the subject of health, how about 5 herbal remedies?
Hope some of these are useful,
Verity
Nice variety of topics, VP. I’ve had the figures from history idea in mind, the others are also good to consider. Thanks.
suggestions
Suggestions:
> top five Canadian settlements (possibly including Hutterite and Mennonite ones too, if there aren’t five Amish settlements of interest),
> top five Amish movies of all time
> Public figures (celebrities, actors, politicians) descended from the Amish [who are not currently Amish themselves]
> Amish caption contests (this needs to be revived, even if there is no prize)
> How do the Amish pray {which ‘supplications’ may be popular, be it bible based or ‘dialect’/cultural background originated – particularly on non-Church meeting days)
[although I guess I could have asked this last one in the most recent “ask an Amishman”, I thought I’d present it to Erik instead]
Some quite creative suggestions here Shom, thanks. And for reminding me about the caption posts. It has been awhile, and those were fun.
Not a problem.
I quite enjoyed the caption contests, myself.
The five worst Amish foods? 🙂 As much as I love my Amish friends’ & neighbors’ cooking, there are a few foods I think only a genuine Amish person could like. I’m being kind of tongue in cheek here… and tongue is one of the foods I was thinking of. 🙂 Seriously, I was once presented with a nice slice of beef tongue!
How about — 5 most popular Amish board games, 5 popular books read by the Amish, 5 Amish housekeeping or garden secrets, 5 Amish kitchen utensils not found elsewhere, or 5 Amish hobbies or past-times?
Rebecca or Mark might be able to share some ideas, hint hint!
5 worst foods, nice one 🙂 I’m sure you could fill out that list, but I’d have to think a lot harder. I’ve had tongue once before, not in an Amish home. I’ll just say the texture was tongue-y, and I wasn’t too fond of that.
Those are some good ideas, you might see one or two of them here. In fact, we have done one of your suggestions already, albeit in shorter form: https://amishamerica.com/5-favorite-amish-pastimes/
Beef Tongue, seriously, never crossed my tongue. You’d have to develop quite a “taste” for that one.Here’s my 5 least favorite foods that are considered Amish food.
Church soup ( a milk and bread soup made for the little ones in church)
Pickles
Coconut Pie (or anything with coconut)
Cold Banana Soup (bread, milk, and bananas, or other fruit, a cool summer supper dish)
Pecan pie (it’s too sweet)
This is great, Erik, very handy to save for “reference” later.
I like the idea of hymns, but I’d actually like to HEAR each one, which would be problematic (too technological), I’m sure!
Oh-forgot to mention, Erik, I read your contribution to Suzanne Woods Fisher’s blog a couple of weeks ago. You do “get around”, don’t you?
Alice Mary
Nice that you saw that Alice Mary. I don’t think I shared it here so here’s the link: http://amishwisdom.com/3-old-fashioned-ways-amish-communicate-erik-wesner/
I’ve also got some guest posts coming out at Dutchcrafters.com: http://www.dutchcrafters.com/blog/
Yes it is fun to guest here and there 🙂