One thing that has always fascinated me are the Amish communities which have a long history – but for one reason or another, today are surprisingly small in size. With the high Amish birth rate, and today most Amish choosing to remain Amish, you would expect most communities to continue growing larger with the benefit of time. We see this in many examples today, as…
We’ve lately seen photos of Amish on the beach on Staten Island, so how about Amish singing an uplifting Christian song in the NYC subway? Update: The uploader has disabled playback on other websites, so you can view it here. Beautifully sung. There is some discussion in the Youtube comments over whether these are Amish, or a Mennonite or other Anabaptist church. Would you…
Sad news from northwestern PA: CLINTONVILLE, Pa. — One adult and one juvenile were killed after a logging truck and an Amish buggy crashed in Clintonville, Venango County, on Sunday afternoon, the Pennsylvania State Police confirmed. According to PSP, the logging truck struck the horse-drawn buggy from behind while both were traveling eastbound in the area of 2414 Clintonville Road around 3:50 p.m. A family…
New York Upstate lists the 12 destinations, which I call “food outlets” because they are not all traditional shops and markets, though some are. Several are multi-vendor markets. Most of these are Mennonite-owned or “Amishy“, but there are at least two Amish-owned markets on the list – Troyer’s General Store, and Weaver’s Farm Market. Many advertise Amish-made or Amish-style products. Here’s the write-up for Troyer’s…
Gloria Yoder answers questions from time to time in her Amish Cook column. In her latest, she gets an interesting question from a reader: another friend and reader, Betsy, from Lebanon, Ohio…wondered if there are different levels of Amish and how we believe about our relationship with Jesus, which is so very sweet and important. Her answer: Thanks for asking Betsy, your question blessed my…
I have mixed feelings about drones. I’m generally not a fan of these flying cameras, but admit that they can capture some amazing footage. One example would be this two-minute video flying over Amish farms in Lancaster County. Someone recently did a drone video in Amish Ohio and shared it to YouTube. The machine does capture some beautiful aerial images. About 100 seconds in, you’ll…
Good news for those who wish to see this northern Indiana tourist institution continue: Amish Acres will live on, in somewhat different form, under new ownership. The people who purchased the key parcels of property will continue the venue as a food and entertainment destination. However they are re-branding the attraction under a different name: “The Barns at Nappanee“. I have to admit I didn’t…
Following a reader question on the topic, several months ago I shared an example of an obituary of an Amish person. Many Amish do have their obituaries posted in general news sources, even appearing online. I came across another example today, of an Amish woman named Elizabeth Petersheim. Elizabeth passed away on Saturday. Her obituary caught my attention for several reasons. One is that it…
A comment by Al in KY got me thinking about how many Amish settlements I’ve actually visited. I had tallied this up before, but it was years ago. So I thought it a good idea to put together a fresh list. I believe the very first settlement I went to was Lancaster County, but that would have been with my parents as a young child…
Monroe Yoder is an Amish bishop in the Shipshewana area of northern Indiana. In 2018, he invited a tour group into his home and spent time answering their questions, along with his wife Susie. This was written up on a blog called Midwest Wanderer by someone who attended the occasion. The post was just brought to my attention by a relative of Monroe. I pulled…