Amish in Unity, Maine recently completed their yearly harvest of ice. This ice is to be used in their ice houses for cooling throughout the coming year. Harvesting ice from local ponds is a common practice among the plainest Amish, though the Amish in this community don’t exactly fit the conventional definition of “plainest”. From the report at centralmaine.com: UNITY — A group of 30…
How do Amish families keep their homes warm? Heating methods and costs are on the minds of many of us, both Amish and English, every year as the calendar moves into the winter months. But as a group which does not use public grid electricity, how do the Amish heat their homes? Here are three ways they do it (read on, or check out the…
A van rollover accident claimed the lives of four Amish individuals, three of them young children, in central Iowa on Friday. The group of Amish (more than one family) were on the way to Missouri to visit relatives. From kmch.com: The Iowa State Patrol says three children and one adult were killed when the passenger van they were riding in lost control on Highway 20….
Visit the larger tourist-friendly Amish communities, and you’ll find the label “Pennsylvania Dutch” or just “Dutch”, and variations of it, everywhere. Amish use the term as well, for instance in the names of their businesses, or in nicknames. But where does this term come from? When you hear “Dutch” in a vacuum, the Netherlands (or Holland) invariably come to mind. And some accounts mistakenly have…
This is a neat article (Jamestown Post-Journal) on the opening of one Amish family’s new pizza place, the aptly-named “Family Night Pizza”. On first glance, the article title itself is eye-catching, for more reasons than one: “Amish Owned Pizza Business Has Opened In Panama”. That would be Panama, New York – not the Central American nation. But the pizza part is just what you would…
Returning to the Inside Amish Homes series, let’s have a look inside a very plain Amish home (and a little bit unfinished, at least on the outside). This one is in Fultonville, New York and it generally has the look of a Swartzentruber home…but some details don’t seem quite right (the floor and a few other items in the home as I’ll show below). There…
The Amish here told the judge they prefer jail to paying fines for violating Ohio’s new buggy lighting law. That might seem surprising. But it’s not, if you’ve paid attention to how these things go with Swartzentruber Amish. From Ashland Source: ASHLAND — A group of eight Amish people refused to pay their fines for their violations of Ohio’s new buggy law in a fines and…
After 15+ years of writing a blog on the Amish, from time to time I still hear from people who wish to become Amish. I usually advise people to take a look at what is attracting them to want to join the Amish. Often, I suspect, the real reasons have little to do with the Amish at all (more on that below). Often it seems…
May 2026 UPDATE: With one more previously “Amish-less” state – Alabama – getting an Amish presence in the past year, the size of this list decreases further – from 18 to just 17 states without Amish. So that means right about two-thirds of the states have at least one horse-and-buggy Amish location. Essentially, it’s becoming easier and easier to say where the Amish aren’t than…
Amish homes have certain features that you’ll tend to see over and over again, due to how useful they are. The following are all features I made use of – and found myself appreciating, some more than others – on my latest visit staying with Amish friends in Pennsylvania. 1. Heating stove in basement This is how many Amish homes are heated. The hot air…