The New York Department of Taxation and Finance is now requiring electronic filing of sales tax returns. Â And it’s causing some Amish in New York problems. Apparently there is an out–those lacking internet access can request an exemption. Â If they don’t, they face a $50 fine. Â Some Amish have been hit with this fine, though it’s not clear why–by the article, it sounds like a…
If you dig around enough on Facebook, you’ll come across profiles of adolescents with Amish names and profile pics taken in Plain clothing. Â These were the catalyst for an interesting piece–“Amish youth hitchin’ up to Facebook“–in yesterday’s Lancaster Sunday News. As the article makes clear, Amish youth+Facebook is far from a universal phenomenon. Â I thought one insight by Steven Nolt was particularly interesting–the way…
Here on the blog and on the Amish America Facebook page, some of you have been bringing up the court decision in Kentucky on Slow-Moving-Vehicle (SMV) triangles. Â The SMV triangle has become iconic of the Amish and the vast majority of them willingly display them on their carriages. However, some of the “lower” groups (in particular the Swartzentruber Amish and a few others) refuse to…
I resisted Facebook for a good while, but finally got a profile back in 2009. Â Since then, I’ve often thought about the above question. What got me pondering this today, though, was an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (“Amish learn value of networking”). Â Amish are using social networking to market their products, with the help of third parties. Â PA Amish farmer and co-op member…
The FDA has taken legal action to stop Amish farmer Dan Allgyer from shipping raw milk across state lines, according to this article. This case against Allgyer has been going on for quite some time.  Allgyer’s Lancaster farm was visited/inspected/raided by federal agents a year ago. Allgyer has been selling his milk in Maryland and DC, violating rules against interstate sales.  His customers are said to be…
Lately we’ve seen many articles, books, and even TV programs about Amish leaving their communities. Below, a video interview of brothers John and Joe Yoder, who recently left their Texas Amish community. Â The Yoders’ former home is the only Amish presence in Texas, in the southern part of the Lone Star State. Why so much interest in former Amish? On the one hand, there is…
Last Friday Elin left a comment on the post “Do we romanticize the Amish?“: “I have read some of these books and enjoyed them but I have realized that the Amishness of the characters is not more than polish. They are often just stereotypical ‘good Christian’ wearing Amish clothes. They are the same characters as in the Christian inspired fairytales I had as a child…
Another photo today, of an inspirational wall decoration from an outhouse at an Amish school (thanks again to Karen Johnson-Weiner). If there is any place that could use a little livening up, I guess it is the outhouse. Â And why not include an uplifting message? Â Actually I guess this is more of a lesson in humble sharing: Outhouses have been in the news lately. Â USA…
Pennsylvania and Maine have been locked in a sweets skirmish the past few weeks. Â The territory under siege is the famous whoopie pie. Both PA Dutch culture and the Amish have connections to the whoopie pie, so there are tourism marketing implications at stake here. Folks in both states have laid claim to the whoopie as the official state dessert. Â If you can believe it,…
You may remember the “Trouble in Amish Paradise” documentary film of a few years ago, which examined two Amish couples’ decisions to leave the Lancaster Amish. The maker of that film, Andrew Tait, has released a follow-up film called “Leaving Amish Paradise”. Â This is one of a number of recent films and books on the experiences of former Amish (see also the National Geographic ex-Amish…