Ira Wagler today on Amish Wisdom

Mary Ann Kinsinger grew up Amish in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.  Mary Ann has teamed with Suzanne Woods Fisher on a series of children’s books, the first of which is called Life with Lily.  The four-book series is based in part on her Amish childhood. I’m not the target market for this series, but it looks like a wholesome and fun read if you have children….

The book you see here just came in the mail. It’s called Chasing the Amish Dream: My Life as a Young Amish Bachelor, and its author is Loren Beachy. You might know Loren already from his Goshen News column “The Plain Side” or other writings. More about Loren: Loren Beachy is an Old Order Amish auctioneer and elementary schoolteacher. Born in central Ohio, Beachy became a Hoosier at…

As mentioned a few weeks ago, food ethnographer William Woys Weaver has written a new book entitled As American as Shoofly Pie: The  Foodlore and Fakelore of Pennsylvania Dutch Cuisine. I recently asked Dr. Weaver ten questions about his book, the Pennsylvania Dutch, and their cuisine, which you’ll find below.  I found his answers very interesting and I hope you do too. Amish America: Who…

Today we have three winners of Richard Stevick’s Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years, and a pair of excerpts from the book. First, the excerpts. Excerpt #1: Rumspringa This first text is from Chapter One, showing public and media misperceptions of Rumspringa. What happened to catapult Amish youth and their teenage years squarely in the public eye, both here and abroad? Seeds were undoubtedly planted…