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…
What goes up, must come down. And if it’s a barn you have in mind, the Amish might be able to help you. We’ve witnessed a lot of barns rising skyward thanks to Amish. Here is one heading in the other direction. An MLive.com photo essay tells the story of this job, which took place near Sparta in west-central Michigan. The English owner is actually dismantling the over-100-year-old…
One of our readers, Carl Oliver, recently attended an event on this month’s Amish auction list. Many Amish-attended auctions are benefit sales–raising funds for medical needs, schools, and other community-wide causes. Others include estate sales, auctions run as a private business, or, as in today’s example, moving sales. You see, moving when you’re an Amish farmer is not as simple as cramming the contents of the house into…
These days, wherever you go in Amish America you’ll see signs alerting you to all those good things that come out of Amish gardens–green beans, tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, onions, and the like. They’re a happy excuse to pull the car over, pick up something healthy for the table, and maybe chat a bit with an Amish housewife or her children. For the families, these roadside…
Amish people are no longer just the subjects of television programs–now they’re beginning to fill in the commercial breaks. A Colorado-based bank is running a series of three 15-second ads featuring an “Amish” spokesman promoting a smartphone app. The point of the spots is that banking-by-phone is so easy, even the technology-fearing Amish could do it. As you can see in the clips below, they play off of…
Every summer, Amish at Jamesport, Missouri hold their annual Spring Hill School Consignment Auction. This is a large two-day auction drawing a lot of interest. As a preview we have some photos from last year’s event, courtesy of Don Burke. All photos and commentary on this page are provided by Don. You can see more of Don’s Jamesport auction photos and others in full size…