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…
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…
Bizarre and disturbing story out of an Amish community in Missouri. A man (who happens to have an Amish appearance, and a name typical among Amish) allegedly confessed to seeking to kill 11 Amish children in the community. The number is oddly specific, and the story doesn’t elaborate on who the children were, or why that number. This is reported by local news channel KTTN:…
This story broke over the weekend. It concerns a poultry plant in the area of the large Holmes/Wayne County Amish settlement in Ohio. From NBC News: Federal agents found more than two dozen minors illegally working inside a poultry plant in Kidron, Ohio, earlier this month, according to local immigration advocates who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity. The children, mainly from…
The case of an SUV-buggy crash which claimed the lives of two Amish children several weeks ago has taken a strange turn – from tragedy to something potentially criminal. Police now suspect that twin sisters, one of whom was believed to be driving the SUV, were not being honest about what exactly happened the morning the Amish girls lost their lives. This crash happened in…