Mark Curtis let me take a few photos of his two-seater buggy while in Ohio last month. We took this to supper on the night I arrived. Very chilly that evening, so the extra-thick blanket you see below came in handy. I don’t know how many people you could fit in one this size (brings to mind the stunts with clowns cramming into a VW…
Taken in Wayne County, Ohio. Many Amish hire “taxis”; some, when available, ride buses or trains. There is, of course, a third transport option for Amish: they feed you, you drive them. I have been participating in this for some time now. But I only recently learned the (un)official name of this Amish-English program: “Meals for Wheels”. This photo reminds me of waiting on a…
Here’s a photo of the light over the kitchen table in an Amish home (taken in Mark Curtis’ Ohio home): Some Amish homes have propane fixtures built-in. You’ll find them in nearly every room of the house, just as you’d find electric fixtures in an English home. In other houses you may see hooks in the ceiling from which portable lights can be hung. There…
Thoughts, articles, links following last week’s Ohio visit: My new favorite soup? Cheeseburger. To the extent that you can call it soup. So thick it’s really a stew. Or let’s cut to the chase, this is basically a liquefied cheeseburger. Had a rib-sticking bowl last week at my Amish hosts’ table. By the way, is this an “Amish soup”? What makes something an “Amish soup”…
Pennsylvania Amishman John Stoltzfus has agreed to take some reader questions. We can’t guarantee answers to everything. But if you’ve got something you’d like to ask John about the Amish, leave it in the comments here, and you might get an answer in a future post. And as John noted in his first post, “my views will not be the only view from our people,…
Over the weekend an Amish teen in Vernon County, Wisconsin died while cutting ice. In light of today’s topic of Amish and self-sufficiency, it seems tragically coincidental to now hear of an accident like this one. In more conservative communities, Amish use ice houses to keep food cold. In cold-weather areas Amish harvest their own ice. In some sense these Amish are further along the…
Time for number 3 in our series of Amish vocabulary quizzes. Each of these words has some significance or relation to the Amish. I think this one may be slightly more difficult than the previous two quizzes, but we’ll see. 1. Charming Nancy 2. Inverter 3. Organdy 4. Jayco 5. Harmony 6. The Echo 7. Uffgevva 8. Rest Haven 9. Passau 10. Vorsinger
The following is taken from an anonymous obituary found in The Diary. The gentleman in question, a Mr. Stoltzfus, was in his early 80s at the time of death. According to the obit, among other relatives, Stoltzfus was survived by “98 grandchildren; 32 step-grandchildren; 143 great-grandchildren; numerous step-great-grandchildren”. I am always amazed by numbers like these, which are not uncommon for Amish individuals, especially when they…
Amish: A Secret Life is a new BBC documentary following David and Miriam Lapp of Lancaster County. From the description on the BBC website: An intimate portrait of Amish family life and faith – this film opens up a world usually kept private. Miriam and David are Old Order Amish and photography is not permitted under the strict rules of the Amish church. So when…
Something fun today. I thought it might be nice to highlight some of the more interesting recent comments from Amish America readers. We typically get between 200 and 300 comments each week. So even if you’re checking in frequently, you’re likely to miss some, which often appear on old posts as well as the fresh-baked ones. Even if I can’t reply to everything, I do…