Florida Amish (Pinecraft)

Hear the words “Amish vacation”, and we’re likely to think family trips to Amish Country, rides in over-sized buggies and picking up pies for office buddies. But what do Amish themselves do when they get the itch to get away from it all? In Monday’s interview, Sherry Gore discussed the unique Amish community of Pinecraft, [...]

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Sherry Gore is a national scribe for The Budget, editor of The Pinecraft Pauper, and columnist for the Amish magazine Ladies Journal. Sherry is also a mother of three residing in Sarasota, Florida, home to Pinecraft, a well-known community of Amish and Mennonites. Sherry has written an especially neat cookbook called Taste of Pinecraft: Glimpses [...]

Continue reading Taste of Pinecraft: Sherry Gore interview and 5-book giveaway

Richard Stevick, Messiah college professor and author of Growing Up Amish: The Teenage Years, has kindly shared an interesting report on an unusual new Amish publication (excerpts to come) based in the Sunshine State: Sunny Pinecraft, Florida, may not be replacing frozen Alymer, Ontario, as the creative and intellectual center of Amish thought and writing, [...]

Continue reading Richard Stevick on the Pinecraft Pauper, a Florida Amish newspaper

Bruce Stambaugh describes peak season at the vacation/retirement community at Amish Pinecraft, in Sarasota, Florida: The atmosphere was part family reunion, part auction crowd. Some came to meet and greet. Most were there to watch. Men with white beards and denim pants with suspenders and women in pastel dresses and lacy white coverings predominated the [...]

Continue reading Pinecraft, Florida – ‘Amish Country South’

Amish and Mennonites have been putting on annual auctions for the benefit of Haiti for many years now.  They take place in various locations across the nation, including communities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Florida, and Illinois. Furniture, quilts and other items are auctioned off at these large events.  The Florida auction, held in Sarasota, is [...]

Continue reading How do the Amish help Haiti?

photo:  Scroonch From Lancaster, Pennsylvania, through Ohio and Indiana and on out to other long-established settlements in Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas, we tend to associate the Amish with the nation’s middle latitudes.  Since their earliest years in America, the Amish have gravitated to the cooler climes of these corn and dairy regions.  However, the Amish [...]

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The cold weather is starting to kick my tail here in Krakow, Poland.  Some people say November is the worst month–the shortest days (dark at 3:30!), messiest nastiest weather–rainy/icy/snowy mix, and just knowing it ain’t letting up anytime soon. Arrgh. In honor of November and bad weather (and, alas, on account of being a bit [...]

Continue reading The cruelest season

The caption accompanying this photo in an AP story on Amish and gas usage reads:  “Using real horse power to get around, an Amish buggy makes its way through Middlefield, Ohio, unconcerned about the rising gas prices…” Actually, the Amish aren’t as oblivious to rising gas prices as we might think. While it’s true they don’t [...]

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Taxes, puppy mills, cream-cheese muffins–I just looked down the list of posts for the last couple weeks and realized that the Amish have been the subject of a good bit of controversy recently. Most of it fairly tame. But this one made me do a double-take. Apparently tempers got hot at the championship game of [...]

Continue reading Amish in the penalty box

Amish people often ask a lot of questions when you tell them you have visited places overseas. I’ve spent a good bit of time explaining to inquisitive Amish folks how people live in Poland, or what it’s like to climb Mt. Sinai. By the nature of Amish life, Amish mobility is typically more restricted, and [...]

Continue reading The Amish on vacation