When you visit an Amish community, you expect to see fields of some sort of crop like corn. Â While you will see traditional grains sprouting in Amish areas of northern Indiana, you’ll also see fields of another crop–recreational vehicles, with row after row of the machines lined up outside the many factories and dealerships scattered about the region. The Elkhart-Lagrange and Nappanee Amish communities have…
Last month a 15-year-old Amish girl lost an arm in a saw accident in a pallet shop in Allen County, Indiana. Local news outlet WANE has done a story about child labor violations in the business where the accident took place. You can view the clip here (no longer online). Child labor restrictions were lessened for Amish in 2004, allowing greater scope for 14 to…
From the New Republic, on Amish signing leases with energy companies: Miller is physically imposing—stout and broad-shouldered—but also painfully timid. When pressed on what his neighbors had earned, he gazed for a long time at Edna, who, with one of their daughters, was chalking the outline of a man’s pantleg onto a bolt of wool rolled out on the table. “My wife and I took…
Beth Russo shares photos from the recent Bowling Green, Missouri Amish auction. Amish people frequently patronize auctions and sales of one variety or another. These events can have a treasure hunt aspect to them. Â Estate sales in particular may yield old furniture, books or other heirlooms. Â Who knows what you might come across. Here are a some of the things Beth came across at Bowling…
An Amish fur buyer in northern Indiana.  No photos of the furs, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.  I had “fur buyer” on one of the lists of odd Amish jobs, focusing on Holmes County, Ohio.  Here is a reader comment about another in a Minnesota Amish community “where they process all types of fur and also salt deer hides”.
We had a look at the Lancaster County Mud Sales yesterday. Â Today, Terry Berger shares a few photos from one that happened just a week-and-a-half ago, at Gordonville. Terry adds, “One of the best parts of going is being with so many people that l look like and getting lost in the crowd so to speak.” End of the day buggy jam up on Route…
Earlier this week we heard from a reader who visited the Unity, Maine Amish community. Â We learned about the Kenneth and Katie Copp family, who run a pair of businesses, the Living Grains Bakery and Locust Grove Woodworks. In the video below Kenneth gives a brief tour of the workings of his horse-powered mill which produces the flour used in Living Grains. Â You’ve also got…
When you read or watch something about the Amish, you might be told that they live separately from the world. It may be further implied or stated that the Amish are a self-sufficient people. Likewise, some seem to assume Amish wake to days full of churning butter, cobbling shoes, and forging metal goods. Seeing an Amish person filling a cart in Wal-Mart can send these folks into shock….
“Amish-founded bank” may be a better way to describe the proposal to create a new bank in eastern Lancaster County.  Lancaster New Era/Intelligencer Journal reports that operations at Bank of Bird-in-Hand could begin “in the next few months”.  The heavily-Amish area is apparently underserved, and the investors see an opportunity there. The article reports that a “substantial” number of the bank’s 18 investors are Amish.  If you…
Last month when commenting on a favorite Amish restaurant, reader Cherie wondered: A couple of decades ago, Sugarcreek was the major shopping and dining area in Amish Country. Not so much anymore. The Amish tour train no longer operates. The ice cream shop is no more. I don’t understand why Sugarcreek is losing favor with tourists when it is so close to I-77. Perhaps someone…