While in Lancaster County I took a trip with a friend and his son to an Old Order (horse-and-buggy) Mennonite community in the Buffalo Valley area of Pennsylvania. It’s about a two and a half hour drive and there had been inclement weather that day, which worsened as we headed further north. We did get a nice visit at the community which I’ll go into…
I just got back from a very Christmas-y week in Lancaster County. Christmas is in the air everywhere, even though it was warmish with not a ton of frozen precipitation (except for one morning). Amish families have been doing late-in-the-game shopping for Christmas presents, just like non-Amish people are this week, and some have already been having family get-togethers. While there, I attended two early…
This video – of a vehicle rear-ending an Amish buggy – is worth checking out. Why? It’s the first I’ve ever seen of a buggy actually being hit. And it comes from an unexpected place – a sheriff deputy’s body camera as he was driving his vehicle. The incident took place in late October in Chautauqua County, New York, home to four distinct Amish settlements (going…
A potentially grim story with a happy ending in a Wisconsin Amish community. From WKOW: GRANT COUNTY (WKOW) — An Amish baby who was missing for two hours in Grant County Friday was found safe thanks to the help of a Good Samaritan. The Grant County Sheriff’s Office was first notified about the missing baby in Hickory Grove Township around 10:30 a.m. Sheriff Nate Dreckman…
Yesterday we had a Q and A with John Esh of Goot Essa cheese (check it out here if you missed it).  And we’ve got the gift basket winner for you below. Thanks to everyone who entered! Goot Essa makes small batch cheeses and pairs them with items like apple butter spread, crackers, prosciutto, fudge and more in their wide array of gift baskets. In yesterday’s Q…
This is the video from my visit to Four Mile Furniture in Jackson County, Ohio. Owners Emery and Rachel Miller operate the store. When I stopped in, Emery was on his way out, but Rachel was able to give me a tour of the store. The visit was peppered with a number of surprises and unexpected things, which you’ll see in this video. They don’t…
Goot Essa is an Amish cheese company based in central Pennsylvania, in business since 2001. They make a wide variety of cheeses (traditional cow dairy, goat, sheep) using milk from Amish farms. Founder John Esh shares more about Goot Essa and their cheeses in today’s Q & A. We first heard from John in a 2020 interview. I also did a little review of a…
In September I wrote about one person’s expression of disappointment on discovering the Amish using plastic packaging. You can read that post here if you missed it. In that post I looked at a couple of the misconceptions that might lead one to be disappointed in a cultural group’s choice of food packaging. These were the somewhat related ideas that a) Amish are “frozen in…
A glimpse at one of Kentucky’s Swartzentruber Amish communities today, courtesy of Don Burke. The community is in Graves County, KY, and is two church districts large. Let’s have a look at some photos of this plain Amish settlement. I’ll add a few comments as we do. Horseshoeing business open three days per week. The pole does double-duty as a birdhouse perch. I’m a bit…
In the video below I explain two main reasons why Amish restrict their children’s schooling to eight grades. If you’d prefer to read this in post form, you can do that here. Some additional things to know about Amish & schooling: Amish school teachers are usually young women in the community (though some men do teach, perhaps around 10%) Not all Amish attend one-room schoolhouses;…