Reader Denise Joyal sends a report from a benefit auction which took place in May in Hopkinton, Iowa. While there, Denise purchased a $3 “junk box” – and by the looks of what was inside, she got a great deal! Let’s check out what three Washingtons can get you at an Amish auction these days. First, here’s the newspaper ad for the auction. It was…
Jim Halverson shares several photos of Amish appliances taken in the well-known Eash Sales store in Shipshewana, Indiana. What you’ll see in the photos below are things that help Amish wash clothes, stay warm, stay cool, and light their homes. Some of these are adaptations of the English version of a given appliance. Others are more old-fashioned. Eash Sales is perhaps better-known for its outdoor…
Jim Halverson shares some photos today from “Amish” garage sales in northern Indiana. Garage sales are popular in the community, as they are in other places. Amish both attend as shoppers and put on the garage sales themselves. And these aren’t just single-family sales. Jim writes: Topeka has a city or area-wide garage sale every year in the middle of May. This year it was…
The Clinic for Special Children runs a number of auctions throughout the warmer months, to support its efforts in researching and fighting rare genetic illnesses. The Lancaster County-based clinic serves the local Amish and Mennonite population, as well as individuals from beyond the community. The annual series of auctions are a primary source of funding for the clinic, which is now in its fourth decade….
I recently put out a video from my visit to Enos Gingerich’s outdoor furniture shop in the Swartzentruber Amish settlement at Ellenboro, NC. You might recall Enos from the video on my visit to his wife’s soap and lotion shop, previous posts on his community, or the video on southern accents among the Amish. In this video (below) I finally show you around his furniture…
A service running for several years now makes the lives of Amish in one part of Ohio easier when it comes to handling postal business. A “Post Office on Wheels” brings postal services to the Amish where they live. The post office is already mobile in some sense for all of us, in that it does regular mail pickup and dropoff. So what’s the difference…
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 Riehl 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…
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…