This summer I picked up a copy of the 2010 Michigan Amish Directory, which lists most of the Amish settlements in the state. Amish directories vary; some can be little more than an address listing, while others include historical background, maps, and more. The Michigan guide, like a few other directories, contains a chart listing the occupations of household heads. While the survey is not…
Amish are well-known for their produce, which they sell at stands and auctions. Produce season is in full swing, with lots of tasty garden treats to be had. You can usually find some great buys for relatively little money. On my recent trip I bought a lot of fruits and veggies from Amish produce stands (to counter the caffeine and other unhealthy stuff I inevitably…
Do Amish horses often lose shoes on the road? The reader who shares the photo below says yes: “Horses always leaving these behind. I ran over this one today, glad the nails were pointed down.” Farriers are the men in Amish settlements who shoe the community’s horses. You can read more and view photos in this report on a visit to an Amish farrier at…
That was the question asked in this thought-provoking video I watched over the weekend. The tone of the narrator is a little too “kindergarten teacher” for me, and don’t watch if you don’t want to see people in beach-style attire in a few places. But it makes a pretty interesting point. Compared to our predecessors, we live like kings (behold the $4,000 1980s brick cellphone). The…
Summer is prime time for auctions. The town of Belleville smack dab in the middle of Big Valley in Mifflin County, PA is home to a long-running auction and flea market, which attracts a large contingent of Amish and English alike. The auction is held each Wednesday year-round. Livestock, farm equipment and many other items go up on the block each week. The flea market…
Not a 100% Amish story, but interesting nonetheless. Willy Ropp was raised Amish in Missouri and has gone on to become a champion bullrider. In an interview with ABC Australia, Willy discusses his Amish upbringing for about the first 6-8 minutes, including what life was like growing up the youngest of 12 children, how he first became interested in bullriding (sneaking away to watch the…
I’ve picked up a lot of interesting, and often delicious, items while visiting Amish businesses around the country. Here are my top 3 buys: 1. Hickory rocker Technically, this was more “barter” than “buy”. It was 2005, and I was selling books in the sprawling Holmes County, Ohio Amish community. I had stopped in one afternoon at an Amish furniture place – a hickory rocker…
“It turns out that beach houses and Amish timber frames are a match made in heaven” explains the narrator in today’s video. Below, a neat clip showing an Amish construction crew rebuilding in Texas, post-Hurricane Ike. In the video, Missouri Amish builder Danny Schwartz demonstrates timber frame construction (the kind used on Amish barns, with wooden pegs driven in by mallets). “Our attitude to building…
What a neat video today. Auctioneers have always fascinated me–their cadence of speech, command of a crowd, how they inject otherwise mundane transactions with excitement and immediacy. And Amish auctioneers doubly so. You’ll find no professional actors, musicians, or entertainers among Amish. But I’ve often thought that auctioneers are the closest to “show business” the Amish get. Getting up on stage, mic-ed up, all eyes…
“We could probably build a better car than Detroit can. I will go out on a wing and say that. I honestly believe we could do that.” It’s not often you hear an Amishman make such a claim. But it almost makes sense – when you learn that the fellow who said this is from northern Indiana. Northern Indiana Amish are different than most Amish….