Jim Halverson checks back in with some scenes from an Amish fish fry that took place last weekend in Topeka, Indiana. I’m calling it an “Amish” fish fry here – for reasons that should be apparent – but officially, it was the Topeka Fire Department Fish Fry & Bake Sale. This is a heavily-Amish area, and so it makes sense that most of those in…
The Amish-owned Rustic Ridge Variety Store burned to the ground back in April in a community in Lewis County, Missouri. While it’s hardly a surprise when an Amish community quickly gets on the job of cleaning up and rebuilding, this one seemed ahead of even a typical schedule. Less than a week later came news that the new store had already been framed and was…
Six months after a fire destroyed their country store, an Amish family in Lemhi County, Idaho has reopened it – despite the owner saying he was inclined, at first, to not rebuild at all. Baker Country Market is in the unincorporated community of Baker, about nine miles southeast of the larger town of Salmon, by which the community is sometimes known. Paul and Maria Miller…
Sixteen months after starting the process, Amish Kitchen columnist Lovina Eicher’s youngest son Kevin finally has his handicap-accessible buggy. This week, Lovina shares a closer look with readers of her column. Kevin, age 20, has muscular dystrophy. He gets around on a mobility scooter (see photo further down). But at about 6’4″ and 230 pounds, getting him in and out of a standard buggy has…
Special Creations, an Amish-run center in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, plays a special role in the community – providing work opportunities for community members with physical and mental disabilities. Gwen Albers of New Castle News shares more on what they do: At Special Creations at 819 state Route 18 in Wilmington Township, south of the Dairy Farmers of America cheese plant, the 15 Amish clients do…
This story will make you do a double-take. At least, it did me. Last month, Amish in a community in Eaton County, Michigan invited a teenage social media preacher to deliver a sermon to their community. He ended up preaching to a group of over 100 people, from the Amish and other backgrounds. When I saw this story, I had the obvious questions. Who are…
Following the wildfire which hit the Amish in the “middle of nowhere”, a non-Amish father and son found they could relate to the community’s loss. And that motivated them to donate their time, energy and resources to helping out one particularly hard-hit Amish family in Cherry County, Nebraska. From News Channel Nebraska: KILGORE, Neb. – Wildfires across Nebraska’s Sandhills are leaving many ranchers scrambling to…
Two weeks after a devastating fire that wiped out a beloved Idaho Amish market, there is some good news. As expected, the community has rallied behind the Amish owners, the Paul Miller family. East Idaho News reports on the cleanup efforts, and shares some words from Paul and the Baker Country Market in Lemhi County. Cleanup began the very next day: Paul Miller owned the…
I found this story both surprising and not surprising. It was surprising to me in that I’d never heard of a deer stand for disabled hunters (though granted, I’m not a hunter myself, and it sounds like a good idea). It’s not surprising in that a) many Amish people love hunting, and b) many Amish people are creative and innovative in coming up with solutions…
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a good “Amish fun in the snow” video. So it seems apt that the arrival of the Big Winter Storm of 2026 would also bring us a good Amish-buggy-doing-snow-donuts video (at end of post). The person who filmed this, Casey Jones Springer, captioned it simply “Only in Tennessee”. While that’s not technically accurate (for instance, here’s a buggy snow…