3 open questions…
Your opinion appreciated on any or all of these difficult issues: Snitz or shoofly? “Stoltzfuses” or “Stoltzfi”? New Year’s or 4th of July?
Amish Life
An e-card next X-mas?
I just cracked into my mail (I often get my US mail at my parents’ address, and collect it when I visit), and found a Christmas card from ‘Jake’ and ‘Suvilla’, Amish friends in Ohio. Jake included a two-page letter to get me up to date with what’s been going on since my last visit. In true Amish-letter fashion, he starts out with a fairly…
New Wilmington Wash Day
Monday is wash day in this settlement, and it’s just about all blue, or shades thereof. Photos from late September of ’07.
Feeling healthy, happy, and terrific
People often assume that the Amish, whom we think of as a people ‘in tune with nature’ and ‘close to the earth’ (which to some degree may be true, whatever those phrases actually mean) are strictly all-natural when it comes to the food they raise. In fact, on most Amish farms pesticides are put to use. Organic farming is something that is catching on in…
Summer Sled
This photo, taken near Mount Hope, Ohio, dates from mid-September of this year. No idea what’s going on here. This ‘cart’ has perhaps lost its wheels, or is maybe being used out-of-season. Any ideas?–please comment if so. In any case, it seems to be getting the job done.
Reader Photos of Pennsylvania Amish
Thanks to Bill for sharing a few photos of two Amish settlements in Pennsylvania. The first shot is from the Smicksburg community, and the second two were taken near New Wilmington. These two communities are about the same size, around 15 to 17 church districts. Smicksburg is actually a Geauga County, Ohio daughter colony, hence the Ohio-style buggy, not too often seen in Pennsylvania. If…
Random Goat Post
Many Amish like to keep goats. Goats make nice pets. Some Amish raise goats to sell the meat. A few I met in northern Indiana sell them to Mexican and Arabic clientele, for example. Apparently goat’s meat is big in traditional Mexican and Arabic cooking. The Amish around Kalona, Iowa, like to milk them. A goat can make a great grass trimmer. Chain to the…
Working the fields
Tractors are generally only used for fieldwork by New Order Amish. Typically, Amish of Old Order affiliations use horses (or, commonly, mules in settlements such as Lancaster, PA) to draw their field equipment. Where do the Amish continue to get their horse-drawn plows and balers, a true anachronism at a time of mega-farms, with modern farmers spending tens of thousands on hi-tech equipment? At one…