I remember when I started noticing the barn stars. It would have been around 2009 or 2010. This was in Holmes County. When you haven’t been to a place for a few years, it is easier to notice the changes. And for me it had been several years in between trips to this community. It struck me because in my previous extended visit of several…
Yesterday evening, helped by my mother and brother, I enjoyed the “Down Home” gift basket, which arrived from Goot Essa last week. The basket came well-packed with insulation on all six sides, and four cooling packs. It also came with two cards. One has a photo of the cheese shop. On the reverse side it tells the Goot Essa story: The other card offered four…
Some terrible news out of Lancaster County this morning: A crash between a horse and buggy and a dump truck killed four people and injured four others Monday morning, Pennsylvania state police said. The crash happened about 6 miles south of Quarryville, in Lancaster County, shortly before 8 a.m., according to state police Trooper Kelly Osborne. Images in the video below show the destroyed buggy,…
Here’s Elam Stoltzfus with part 2 of 4 of his Rediscovering the Ausbund series, originally published in Plain Values magazine. If you missed part 1, find that here. All photos here are by Elam. My father Elmer was an Ausbund song leader. When we met for church, he would lead the Amish congregation in song, starting slowly, rolling out the syllables written in German gothic script….
From Cleveland.com: COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio House on Tuesday passed a bill that would require flashing lights on the backs of Amish buggies, a move meant to cut down on dangerous crashes. House Bill 501 is now headed to the Ohio Senate for approval after clearing the House with a 74-10 vote. It would toughen existing law that requires animal-drawn vehicles to have two…
From the Spooner, Wisconsin Advocate: Five children were injured when an allegedly drunk driver crashed into their horse and buggy on Monday afternoon, Dec. 7. The accident occurred on Cty. Hwy. M near Church Road, west of Birchwood. The horse and buggy was northbound on Hwy. M and was rear ended by a pick-up truck. All five children were injured, and two of them were…
This summer we learned about Goot Essa, an Amish cheese maker in central Pennsylvania. The business had adapted to the recent disruption and started selling their foods online (with non-Amish help to run the website). Last week I spoke with Goot Essa’s founder, John Esh Jr. John has kindly answered some questions – about his business, personal favorite cheeses, his family’s Christmas Day activities, and…
This is a neat story and a response to the idea that Amish don’t contribute to road upkeep. Amish in Monroe County, Wisconsin (Cashton settlement) recently made a donation to the local highway department. From the Monroe County Herald: The five most northern districts of the Cashton Amish community donated $6,275 to the Monroe County Highway Department. Monroe County Highway Commissioner David Ohnstad said a…
Two Amish people in Tennessee are lucky to be alive after a bad accident with a runaway horse. From the Tennessee River Valley News Facebook page, posted Saturday morning: HENRYVILLE, TN- A local couple is lucky to be alive after a runaway horse belonging to an Amish family ended up in the cab of the truck after a crash. A local couple struck a horse…
Today we have a video “slice of life”. This one comes from Daniel Stoltzfus, whose wife Lydia shared her scrap quilts in a recent clip. In this video, Daniel is filming and talking with a lady who I assume is one of his Amish relatives (a sister?) as she rolls and weaves pretzels on the kitchen counter. At one point Daniel hams it up a…