How do Amish religious beliefs shape their views of nature? What outdoor recreational activities do they favor? What can be learned about their approach to gardening, animal husbandry, and agriculture? David McConnell and Lyn Loveless are exploring many questions like these in a new book project on the Amish and nature. Lyn Loveless is a professor of biology at the College of Wooster, and David is…
Reader Andy shares photos of the annual school auction held in Texas’ sole Amish community, in Bee County (Beeville). Some of them are a bit blurry, probably due to the low light, but you can see some of the items up for sale including a pretty fancy buggy (rest assured you won’t see Amish driving this model). The buggy may very well be the work of Truman Borntrager,…
On a post about an Amish store, reader Terry wrote: We have a bulk food store about 15 minutes from us, but what fun is that…to just go and buy what you need and come home? We save $ at that store, but it’s just not the same “experience” as traveling the back roads in rural Wisconsin, heading to Amish country, and spending the whole…
Amish in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin seem to have changed their tune regarding smoke detectors. When the issue arose in 2013, it appeared they rejected a scheme which would have had them install smoke detectors to satisfy local building code, only to remove them after inspection. Amish in New York did something like this in 2012 to resolve a similar dispute. Reports on the Eau Claire group said that…
Two weeks ago we asked for your questions for Linda Maendel, member of a Manitoba Hutterite community and author of the upcoming Hutterite Diaries. Linda has answered many of them and we’re sharing the first of those today. Wendy asked: Hutterites live “communally”. Explain how this differs from Amish. Do they share all meals together? Do males and females live separately or do they live…
Would you like to hear an Amish person explain his faith and lifestyle in his own words? In the short film “An Amish Man”, Dennis Hochstetler does just that, discussing family, technology, separation from the world, and other Amish beliefs. He also describes his business and work as owner of Rentown Cabinets. The 10-minute film was created by Philip Bloom in the Nappanee, Indiana community. There are some beautiful shots…
How do Amish harvest ice? Arthur Bolduc recently joined a crew for a day of ice-cutting in Knox County, Ohio to give an inside look into the process. Ice is a necessity for those Amish who don’t use mechanical refrigeration, relying instead on ice houses. But the way they get their ice varies. Amish in Geauga County, for instance, purchase ice stored in ice vending stations scattered throughout the…
This 19-second video shows an Amish buggy doing donuts in the snow (snonuts?). It was filmed in Polk, Ohio (Ashland County), by Shayla Buhl, employee of the Polk Market and Deli. “I just looked out the window and grabbed my phone. They had it up on two wheels at one point,” Buhl told Fox 8 Cleveland. Ashland County contains all or parts of three Amish settlements. Given…
I’m happy to welcome Janneken Smucker, author of Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon, who will be sharing her Amish quilt expertise with us here. Janneken is Assistant Professor of History at West Chester University, consulting curator for the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and author of multiple publications on quilts and quilting (read a Q-and-A with Janneken on Amish quilts). Janneken…
Trying to talk about the “Amish approach” to health care is nothing if not complex. For one, with diverse churches and individual differences, you really can’t say there is a single “Amish approach”. But one thing is for sure – many Amish people, admirably, care about their health. That’s the conclusion you have to draw after observing the efforts they put forth to get, and…