This is the video from my visit to Four Mile Furniture in Jackson County, Ohio. Owners Emery and Rachel Miller operate the store. When I stopped in, Emery was on his way out, but Rachel was able to give me a tour of the store. The visit was peppered with a number of surprises and unexpected things, which you’ll see in this video. They don’t…
Jim Halverson recently visited the Kalona, Iowa Amish community. We’ll have some photo sets from this visit to Iowa’s largest Amish community. Here’s the first one, from the local produce auction. Jim first visited the Kalona Creamery where he talked to an Amish girl working there: The girl at the Creamery directed us to a nearby produce auction. They were auctioning off palettes of great…
I had a blast doing this Q & A with my friend Ben while in Lancaster County last month. We recorded this while driving to a local horse auction. Ben explains the appeal of Amish auctions and answers some of my questions. He also shares a funny anecdote and we have some laughs. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did recording…
Lindsay Ems has a new book out called Virtually Amish: Preserving Community at the Internet’s Margins. A portion was adapted for an article in Wired magazine. I’m looking forward to reading this book, but for now I’ll share a couple of excerpts. This first one suggests the etiquette of using higher tech like smartphones within the community. “If you’re going to use it, don’t rub…
Some might assume that the Amish are not especially wealthy based on their lifestyle, which can seem austere by modern American standards. However, while there certainly are some Amish that live – at least technically – below the poverty line, many are also quite prosperous financially. Most Amish people like other Americans could probably be considered “middle class”. But there are also a good number…
I made this video showing the inside of Yoder’s Home Furnishings in Westcliffe, Colorado. You can also see a lot of amazing views of the area. Overall my visit to Colorado was a great trip and I was able to get around to four of the six Amish communities in the Centennial State. Visiting four communities out there is a bit more of a challenge…
So I did a video recap of all the things I bought on my recent Kentucky-Ohio-Virginia Amish trip. You’ll see my haul from a total of six stores (plus one bonus stop in Kentucky that I explain in the video). I visited a couple of variety stores, a bent-n-dent food store, a large market and deli-style store, and two bulk foods places. But my Amish…
New Jersey is another one of those states that people think has or at least ought to have an Amish population (like Georgia). However, the Garden State does not. And not just that, I don’t believe it has ever in history had an Amish community…which is kind of surprising when you think about it being right next-door to Amish-loaded states Pennsylvania and New York. Amish…
This Amish market has become fairly well-known, featuring in media coverage over the years. It also became popular in its own right, thanks in part to its weekly Wednesday “Donut Day“. Sadly the news came today that the Unity, Maine Community Market rapidly burned down yesterday. From Bangor Daily News: UNITY, Maine — The Amish Community Market and Bakery in Unity burned down on Thursday,…
Last month I took a trip to King’s Kountry Store in Halifax County, Virginia. This store has been featured here a couple of times before, most recently in this 68-photo look inside the store dating to 2019. It was nice to catch up with Benny Ray and Mary Ann King, the couple who own the store. They let me film inside to give you a…