Back in 2019 we had a look at the Amish and hemp farming, a trend that emerged after Pennsylvania legalized hemp cultivation. Now four years later, a new piece at DailyMail.com looks at “the booming business of Amish cannabis farmers” with a visit to the retail location of Lancaster County Cannabis, owned by a 29-year-old Amishman who goes only by his last name in the story…
Right off the bat, this home has two things that stand out about it – its small size for an Amish home (1,192 square feet), and its fancy design. In fact, it reminds me of the style seen in the million-dollar Amish home we looked at last year. This home has a Garretsville, Ohio address. Garrettsville is in northern Portage County, which would make it…
I was happy to see that Goot Essa owner John Esh appeared on the “Seen Through A Glass” podcast recently to discuss his cheese & food business. John has a nice casual discussion with podcast host Lew Bryson. He explains how he came to cheese-making, and specifically European-style cheeses. In case you were wondering about the Amish and cheese, John notes that there is a…
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. You know when I manage to pause and think for a bit, I usually find there is a lot to be thankful for. I found Gloria Yoder’s words in her previous column inspiring on that matter. How do the Amish celebrate Thanksgiving? I’m reposting below the video I made last year on this occasion. You can also check out…
With the air crisp and the calendar about to leave October behind, I thought it would be a nice time to look back at fall-related posts we’ve featured here over the years. Check out these beautiful photos by Bill Coleman and others, a look at the Amish and Halloween, and more below. I hope you’re enjoying this autumn season – it has been absolutely beautiful…
Jim Halverson checks in with a photo set from a Swartzentruber Amish barn-raising. This took place back in the summer as should be obvious from these photos. If you missed it, we recently took a closer look at the Amish barn-raising via Burton Buller’s excellent film The Amish Barn-Raising Day. In it, we see footage of two separate barn-raisings (in Ohio and in Pennsylvania), done…
I made a return to YouTube videos this past week with a look at six Amish stories in the news recently. This is a newish format for me as far as videos go. In the video, I run through the stories and give you my take on each. You’ll see it’s a bit more conversational and casual. There’s a reason for that, which I explain….
One of my favorite things about looking at Amish homes is: there are almost always little details that stand out. This week’s home fits that bill, as it looks like it was an English-built…but then there is that classic blue Amish door frame hinting that this is not currently an English-owned place. I don’t know exactly what you call this style of home, but it’s…
Sometimes people stand out by making noise. Other times, the quieter ones set themselves apart. One thing that I’ve always appreciated about the Amish, is that they’re not attention seekers. Perhaps this is in part due to the fact they automatically get a lot of attention due to being so visually, and culturally different. But there are also aspects of Amish culture that leads them…
Autumn is the heart of the traditional Amish wedding season in places like Lancaster County and other communities. Amish weddings draw large numbers of guests, and the Amish custom is to hold a day-long reception afterwards. Amish wedding receptions are typically large, with hundreds of guests, and require a lot of food. In some Amish communities, the custom is to rent a “wedding wagon“, a…
Irma Miller, age 11, and sister Wilma, age 7, lost their lives after their buggy was rear-ended on the morning of September 25th in Fillmore County, Minnesota. Questions soon arose over the alleged driver of the vehicle, which may have in fact been the woman’s twin sister. News station KTTC visited with the Miller family, and spoke with the father of the girls, Menno, about…
The two words that first hit me to describe this Amish home are “spacious” and “squeaky clean”. You’ll see what I mean in the photos below. The community is Salem, Indiana. This is also a quite low, or plain/traditional home. In this case that means zero bathrooms. The area of Salem has more than one Amish community today. One is a New Order Amish settlement,…