Ever noticed how Amish women in different places wear different head coverings? A good example is the heart-shaped Lancaster women’s covering, versus the straight-sided, pleated coverings worn by Amish women in the Midwest. Like other items of Amish clothing, there are quite a few different styles of women’s coverings, and some with rather subtle differences. I stopped in at the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center…
Do Amish adopt? How does the process work? Do they adopt non-Amish children or just those from their own communities? Amish Cook Gloria Yoder recently shared her family’s story of fostering two children, Jesse and Rayni, in a 2-part series. She gives a window into the adoption process, not yet completed in this case but is moving along well.  Gloria and her husband Daniel…
In a nice story of sacrifice, some Amish and Mennonites recently spent holiday vacation time helping victims of an April 2018 tornado. About 200 homes and businesses were damaged last spring by a 115-mph-wind tornado in the area of Meridian, Mississippi. The volunteers are working through the Mennonite Disaster Service organization (MDS). You can see Amish men in this photo doing what looks like cleanup…
What does it take to feed 1,000 wedding guests? Lovina Eicher shares just that in her recent column: Neighbor Laura and I were head cooks, so our job was to make sure we had all the ingredients there to feed about 1,000 people. Six hundred pounds of chicken were grilled by Menno’s uncle. They started at 3:30 a.m. Four hundred pounds of potatoes were bought….
Amish wedding season is in full swing. I was reminded of this yesterday speaking with an Amish friend about visiting Thursday – he had to stop to think if they had any weddings that day. Thankfully the schedule is clear, but it’s not uncommon to have multiple weddings to attend in a week, and even on the same day (Tuesday and Thursday being the traditional…
How do Amish celebrate Thanksgiving? As anywhere, that can vary, but Gloria Yoder shares one special experience in her latest Amish Cook column – an annual supper held for widows in her community: This year Wanita took charge of coordinating the event. The meal consisted of ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn and salad, as well as pumpkin, apple and peach pies served with ice cream….
How to prep food for 300+ wedding guests? The Amish, accustomed to frequent weddings with many attendees, have figured out a way to make the whole affair easier and more efficient. Enter the wedding wagon: For those who don’t know what a wedding wagon is, it is like an RV with a ramp added on, with six or seven propane gas stoves and ovens in…
With the air crisp and the calendar about to leave October behind, I thought it would be a nice time to look back at fall-related posts we’ve featured here over the years. Check out these beautiful photos by Bill Coleman and others, a look at the Amish and Halloween, and more below. I hope you’re enjoying this autumn season – it has been absolutely beautiful…
Several weeks ago we had Don Burke’s visit to the home of the Grabers, an Amish family in Jamesport, Missouri. This got a variety of reactions, including descriptions of the home as “very interesting”; “too modern”; “cluttered…[but] cute and homey.” Readers also noticed the high gloss paint on the ceiling and the simple electronic games on a recliner-side table (view the original post here). These…
Nearly 10 years ago we had a post about corner ball, a traditional game played by Amish and Old Order Mennonites. I had long heard of this game – described in depth by Richard Stevick in Growing Up Amish: The Teenage Years –Â and had always wanted to see it “live”. Fortunately, I had a chance to do just that on my recent visit to Lancaster…