Health and Illness

Last week on the Amish quilt shop post I mentioned I picked up a copy of Plain and Happy Living: Amish Recipes and Remedies.  This is a book written by the quilt shop owner’s aunt.  She noted that it isn’t common for an Amish woman to publish something like that (and even less so 20 [...]

Continue reading Plain and Happy Living: Amish Recipes and Remedies

I remember the first time I got a sense that Amish might approach medicine a bit differently than the rest of us.  I was selling books in Indiana.  An Amish woman whom I met at the door casually mentioned that her children were battling whooping cough.  ”You’ve had your shots, right?”  she asked.  ”Yes…I think?” [...]

Continue reading Why Amish vaccinate less

A couple of heart-breaking stories this week.  An 11-month-old Amish baby died late Sunday night when it fell from a moving buggy in Missouri.  The person holding it had fallen asleep. Yesterday morning, an Amish woman in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, succumbed to serious burns suffered in a home explosion.  She had thrown kerosene on a [...]

Continue reading Is Amish life more dangerous?

I don’t know if the video I just watched-entitled “Amish Smugglers’ Shady Milk Run”–was intended to be funny, but I couldn’t help but chuckle. Technically, I guess you do call someone who brings in product to sell in an area where it is illegal a “smuggler”.  But the term is such a loaded one. The [...]

Continue reading “Shadowy” Amish raw milk smugglers

I’ve been looking forward to this new addition to Amish America for a long time.  Various questions seem to recur on Amish topics.  I thought it might be nice to put together a resource to try to answer some of those questions. The Amish Online Encyclopedia (AOE) covers a variety of subjects including Amish culture, [...]

Continue reading New to Amish America: The Amish Online Encyclopedia

Today, part 2 of the interview with professors Hurst and McConnell, on their new book on the Holmes County Amish, An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World’s Largest Amish Community.   If you missed the first part, or would like to find out how to enter a drawing to win the book, check [...]

Continue reading An Amish Paradox–Part 2 of an interview with Charles Hurst and David McConnell

A couple more articles caught my eye over the past few days.  Many people have likely already seen the article from yesterday’s NYT on Amish farms damaging the Chesapeake Bay through farm runoff. This issue has existed for a number of years, but this was interesting to see written about for a couple reasons:  one [...]

Continue reading Controversies over Amish manure and aching backs

Two days ago, I sat down with Harley Stutzman, a furniture finisher in the Holmes County settlement.  I had heard that Harley had been through an ordeal since our last meeting.  Harley shared his remarkable story as we sat on his front porch sipping ice cold Pepsis on a beautiful spring afternoon. By way of [...]

Continue reading Harley Stutzman gets back on his feet

Just back from a 10-day visit to Lancaster County.  Gave a couple of talks and enjoyed the unfolding of the spring season.  A few highlights from the trip: Amish business visits I dropped in for a day at the Markets at Shrewsbury, one of the Pennsylvania Dutch markets in the region.  It happened to be [...]

Continue reading Highlights from Lancaster County

Last night while  lounging around with Abe and Sara, we suddenly heard one of their little boys begin coughing and crying, clearly audible through the air vent in the ceiling. Abe knew instantly what was wrong by the sound.   “That’s the croup,” he decided, a bit glumly, and stood with his wife to go attend [...]

Continue reading Croup or whooping cough?