In today’s video Amish Cook editor Kevin Williams gives us a peek into Mary’s Bakery in the Hardin County, Ohio Amish community (we recently saw another video from Kevin here of a toy and furniture business in this same community). As Kevin notes, it is a quite small bakery, but one chock full of nice things to eat – homemade cinnamon rolls, cookies such as…
We’ve covered the Amish at Union Grove, North Carolina several times (recently in a post on my last visit in the fall of 2014). In today’s video, Ida, host of Sweets and Beyond, takes us inside the Shiloh General Store, one of several Amish businesses in that small settlement (read more on Shiloh General store including address and hours). Shiloh General Store is just what the name suggests–a…
We’ve “visited” Amish stores selling wooden toys before – recently the Tinker Toy Shop (Ohio), and also the Raber Family Toy Shop (New York). Crafting simple toys is a niche within woodworking, perhaps the most popular Amish industry. Today’s video shows an Amishman in Shipshewana, Indiana, demonstrating the art of woodturning as he creates that classic toy of yesteryear–a wooden top. It’s an eleven minute…
It’s been over five years since my Amish business book (Success Made Simple: An Inside Look At Why Amish Businesses Thrive) was released, and it’s neat to still bump into people who’ve read it or at least heard of it 🙂 I recently met someone in the latter group from Portugal, of all places. In a nutshell, I interviewed 60 Amish entrepreneurs and then distilled their wisdom…
Jim Cates follows up last week’s post on income and material differences in Amish communities with part 2–on the challenges of making money, including the attraction of marketing schemes, and what happens when business deals go bad. Money…Is a Terrible Master The full quote actually goes “Money is in some respects life’s fire: it is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.” No less an expert than…
On our recent list of five Amish publications you might like, we included the Plain Communities Business Exchange, a monthly paper for and about Amish and other Plain businesses. Today we have an interview with PCBE’s Carl Heule, who leads public relations for the publication. Carl shares what the PCBE is all about, who reads it, and his thoughts on a few of the more unusual Amish…
It’s been a while since we’ve checked in on the Amish auction scene. Reader Jerry, a regular sale-goer, shares photos from the Gratz Fire Company Sale. This one took place May 1st and 2nd in Gratz, Pennsylvania. This is not located in Lancaster County, but the Dauphin County community are Lancaster-origin people, as you can see by the buggies and dress in the photos below. The…
Are you surprised that the Amish-backed Bank of Bird-in-Hand has (so far) been a success? According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the bank has amassed more than $60 million in loans in its first year of business. In 2013, Bank of Bird-in-Hand was reported to be the first new US bank since 2010, when the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law was enacted. Now in 2015, it’s…
Reader Andy shares photos of the annual school auction held in Texas’ sole Amish community, in Bee County (Beeville). Some of them are a bit blurry, probably due to the low light, but you can see some of the items up for sale including a pretty fancy buggy (rest assured you won’t see Amish driving this model). The buggy may very well be the work of Truman Borntrager,…
Cedar Pine Discount Groceries is another of umpteen little Amish-run food stores tucked away in corners of North America. It’s located in the little community at Roseville, Illinois, a one-church district settlement founded in 2007. Cedar Pine sells bent-n-dent and salvage goods, along with some homemade and fresh products. The Register-Mail of Galesburg, IL recently published a profile of the store. A few interesting things I…