Amish Culture

Dirty Buggy? Amish Youth Will Wash It For You — While You Eat Ham Sandwiches

Dirty Buggy? Amish Youth Will Wash It For You — While You Eat Ham Sandwiches

Just like your car, Amish buggies – not to mention their horses – need the occasional wash too. That’s the idea behind an upcoming event in the Shipshewana, Indiana area, passed along to us by Jim Halverson. This is the ad for a benefit buggy wash to be held about two weeks from now, on Saturday August 15: BENEFIT BUGGY WASH to be on Saturday,…

The Amish “Black Box” Phone: The Device They Built to Keep Big Tech Out

The Amish “Black Box” Phone: The Device They Built to Keep Big Tech Out

Looking at its name alone, the Amish Black Box Phone has an air of secrecy or mystery to it. Is it some sort of clandestine Amish spy-ops device? A tool meant for conveying bad news? Of course, many of us will connect “black box” with the recording devices used to record communication in plane crashes, another morbid association. But it’s none of those things. Rather,…

New From Ben & Rose: “How Great Thou Art”

New From Ben & Rose: “How Great Thou Art”

Ben & Rose are back, this time covering a hymn beloved by many. “How Great Thou Art” went up on YouTube yesterday, their first new song since “Stroll Over Heaven” at the end of June. The hymn has an interesting history. It started life as a Swedish poem, “O Store Gud,” written by Carl Boberg in 1885, reportedly after he was caught out in a…

Thousands of Amish Turn Out For Ohio “Family Farm Field Days” (13 Photos)

Thousands of Amish Turn Out For Ohio “Family Farm Field Days” (13 Photos)

Earlier this month, Sugarcreek Budget Publisher Milo Miller brought us a look at the latest edition of Horse Progress Days. He’s back with a look at another popular Amish event, this time Family Farm Field Days, held in Apple Creek, Ohio. It’s a gathering built on a simple idea: that farming can still be a viable living for a family, whether they’re working hundreds of…

5 Things You Should Never Say To An Amish Person (Or Should You?)

5 Things You Should Never Say To An Amish Person (Or Should You?)

So I couldn’t resist commenting on this one. You may have come across slideshow-style “listicle” posts on mass media sites like MSN or AOL. I’ve been seeing a lot of them lately about the Amish (sometimes they link to this website as a source, so no complaints there). Things like “10 surprising technologies the Amish use” or “The 15 largest Amish communities”. Often enough, the…

The Biggest Amish Horse Festival of the Year Just Happened in Illinois (23 Photos)

The Biggest Amish Horse Festival of the Year Just Happened in Illinois (23 Photos)

Horse Progress Days 2026 happened last weekend in the Arthur, Illinois community. Like he did last year, Budget Newspaper publisher Milo Miller shares a great batch of photos he took while at the event. For those unfamiliar, Horse Progress Days is the marquee event for horse-drawn farming equipment. It draws thousands of Amish attendees from across the country each year. It’s an event not only…

New from Ben & Rose: “Stroll Over Heaven”

New from Ben & Rose: “Stroll Over Heaven”

Ben & Rose have just released a new tune – “Stroll Over Heaven” is a gospel song written by Carl L. Trivette in 1952. It was popularized more recently by Alan Jackson on his 2005 gospel release Precious Memories. This is their first since their team-up with Rose’s siblings Mike & Marty on “Palms of Victory”. We actually got a short demo clip preview of…

New from Mike & Marty: “Will The Circle Be Unbroken”

New from Mike & Marty: “Will The Circle Be Unbroken”

“Will The Circle Be Unbroken” was originally written in 1907 by Ada R. Habershon, with music by Charles H. Gabriel. Versions of it were later more famously recorded by The Carter Family, Johnny Cash, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – with variations in lyrics and music. Now Mike and Marty contribute their own effort to the unbroken circle line. Their version of the song…

Ben & Rose AND Mike & Marty: “Palms of Victory”

Ben & Rose AND Mike & Marty: “Palms of Victory”

Ben and Rose have joined with Rose’s siblings Mike and Marty to do a lovely rendition of “Palms of Victory”. This just released today, and I bet it’s going to get a lot of listens 🙂 Rose was previously in a group with brother Mike and sister Marty, called Third Fret Harmony, which we’ve seen here before. Really neat to see them uniting/re-uniting on this…

New from Mike & Marty: “Keep On The Sunny Side”

New from Mike & Marty: “Keep On The Sunny Side”

Here is an upbeat song for your day – Mike and Marty just released a new one called “Keep On The Sunny Side”. This tune was originally written in the late 1800s by Ada Blenkhorn, and later recorded by the Carter family. The story behind its writing is moving: In 1899 Ada Blenkhorn was inspired to write the Christian hymn by a phrase used by…