Chris Gingerich, 47, is a member of North Carolina’s sole Swartzentruber Amish community. A writer for AL.com met Chris and his wife Iva, along with 2 of their 13 children, at the Amtrak station in Birmingham, Alabama. Writer Greg Garrison managed to have a nice conversation with Chris, which he shares in an article for the site. This is a neat article for a few…
A recent article (Lancaster Online) on the Lancaster Amish and development pressure brought some interesting facts about the county’s Amish population to the forefront. Most of these are from that article, with some additions and explanation by me. 5 Facts About Lancaster County’s Amish Population 1. The largest community – Lancaster County is home to an estimated 33,143 Amish, according to estimates from the Young Center….
Local NC station Fox8 recently did a “foodie report” on the Amish-owned Shiloh General Store, a popular destination in the Tar Heel State. The video below includes some nice comments from brother and sister Mark and Delilah Graber, who work at the store with their parents and five other siblings. They talk about baking sourdough bread and their most popular items, donuts, which they only…
Is there such a thing as an “Amish Latter-day Saint”? The video below tells the emotional tales of three Amish families who joined the LDS church. This recently-released film recalls a similar story on “Amish Seventh-Day Adventists“. This formulation – Amish + another denomination – is always attention-getting. Especially if you consider “Amish” to be shorthand for “Amish Christian”. In other words, a faith designation….
The first clue that I’d arrived in the Amish area of Charlotte County, Virginia was a sign warning of buggy traffic for the next 15+ miles. The second indication was this little building on the side of the road: There were phone shacks (or shanties) just like this one found throughout this community of two churches. The Amish here have ties to the Mechanicsville (St….
Yesterday I visited the small Amish community in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. It was a crisp early spring day. The people in this community, a Union Grove, NC daughter settlement, certainly chose a beautiful area to settle in. It’s a area of rolling hills, with lovely valleys and spans of thickly-wooded land. The settlement itself lies near the town of Chatham. The countryside has a lot…
How many eggs do Amish eat? How much do they can? How often do Amish order pizza or other food to the home? I’m currently reading the new book Nature & The Environment in Amish Life. Authors David McConnell and Marilyn Loveless include a survey revealing interesting – even surprising – points about the Amish diet. They compared the four major affiliations of Amish in…
An Amish boy in Highland County, Ohio was diagnosed with Hepatitis A on March 21. Due to the close-knit nature of Amish communities, and their overall lower vaccination rates, this posed a particular threat. But swift action by health department officials, and cooperation by the Amish community seems to have stopped a potential outbreak. From the Hillsboro Times-Gazette: Warner said health department nurses met with…
How about a little tour through Holmes County, Ohio? I realized I still have a lot of photos from last year’s visit. Since I’ll be going to some new communities starting next week, I thought it would be a good time to share them with you. These were taken over a couple days in early December. You’ll notice the changing weather conditions, from bright and…
I came across some remarkable historical photos on the PBS American Experience site. I believe these were connected with the release of the documentary film “The Amish” in 2012, but I missed them the first time around. There are a total of 13 shots in the gallery which you can view in full, and in larger sizes, here. I pulled a few of my favorites…