In the market for a nice handmade basket? It you’re visiting a Swartzentruber Amish community, there’s a good chance you’ll find one. Basket businesses are pretty common among this very plain Amish group. For instance you’ll find one listed among this sample of companies from Ethridge, TN (home to a sizeable Swartzentruber settlement) or some more visual evidence among these photos from the same community. As you…
Here’s a nice video giving a little look into maple syrup production, plus a visit to Amish baker Emma Miller’s bakery for a baking demo and interview. Host Robin Benzle comes to us from Burton, Ohio, which is in the Geauga County Amish settlement in northeastern Ohio. Last week we had a look at the goods on display in Miller’s Bakery in Holmes County, Ohio….
Another nice video from Lavonne DeBois of Amish Heartland Tours. In this 3+ minute clip you get a little stroll around Amish-owned Miller’s Bakery, located near Charm, Ohio. Goodies you’ll find at Miller’s include cookies, pies, jams, noodles, pinwheels, and a nice selection of cheese tarts. The oddest item to me are the raisin-filled cookies. Never seen that one before and not sure it would be…
School auctions happen often across Amish America. Some of them have become rather well-known – happening in places like Jamesport, MO, Beeville, TX, Clarita, OK, and Rexford, MT. Today we have a look at an ad from an upcoming event at Pawnee City, Nebraska. There are some neat details here which show you what you can expect to find at an auction. The proceeds from these events help fund…
I have to say I’ve never spent much time wondering how brooms are made. But I still quite enjoyed this video, with commentary by a talkative Amish woman named Ada. In the video you see her making brooms using a clankety foot-powered contraption as she discusses the ins and outs of her craft. As Ada works she is interviewed by LaVonne De Bois, who leads tours in…
Amish builders in Maine have teamed with a non-Amish business to create a “solar shed”. If you didn’t know, many Amish themselves are avid users of solar power, with the sun-guzzling panels visible on homes and barns and even on buggy rooftops. They use them to power batteries, lights, or electric fences, for instance. As Maine Amishman Joas Hochstetler explains: “Solar is pretty passive, there’s…
Each year, a cycle of special auctions called mud sales kicks off in the late winter/early spring months in the Lancaster County area. Mud sales have been a tradition in the community for generations. From a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on the sales: The mud sales were started about 50 years ago, in part to give local farmers a chance to obtain new or used equipment as…
I’ve been glad to have DutchCrafters as a long-time advertiser on this site. I thought it would be nice to hear a bit about how this furniture business got started, and how it works with Plain craftsmen today. Below, DutchCrafters CEO Jim Miller shares answers to five questions about his interactions with the Amish and how his business works. I hope you enjoy it. Special thanks to Milca…
You may remember the story of Amish convert Matthew Secich of the Unity, Maine Amish community. Secich was previously a well-known chef working in upscale restaurants, before becoming a member of the Unity community last autumn, where he lives with his wife Crystal. Now Secich runs Charcuterie, a store specializing in specialty meats and cheeses. He ran into challenges earlier this year when health regulations threatened…
The 20-family Smyrna Mills, Maine Amish community, founded in 1996, is the oldest in a state with relatively few Amish. A recent article in the Bangor Daily News visits a Smyrna Mills Amish business, Sturdi-Bilt Storage Buildings, a maker of portable structures including sheds and tiny homes. You can lean more about it in the short video below. You’ll also notice one unusual element in this community…