This is how this Kansas Amish home’s description opens – and why I couldn’t pass up describing it likewise: “Escape to the wild side and live on your own terms with this rugged 50-acre off-grid farm in central Osage County”. Osage County, KS is a sparsely-populated place, and true to the pitch, the property enjoys abundant wildlife – as shown in a series of accompanying…
Save & Serve is a special kind of store – a nonprofit operation whose earnings are directed to benefit various outreach projects, supporting the Mennonite Central Committee’s mission. Based in Millersburg, Ohio, it’s a thrift shop selling a “curated selection of gently-used items”, according to its website. Founded in the mid-1970s, they’ve been at it for over half a century now. Periodically, Save & Serve…
I have a tradition of doing this favorite posts roundup post on the last day of the year. I’ve done this going back to at least 2014 (though it looks like I missed 2016 for some reason). These are “favorites” – what does that mean? Well, some are those that got the most views – or the biggest stories from a news perspective. Some were…
The sign you see here welcomes you to Peachey’s Country Store, a place definitely worth stopping if you find yourself in the Somerset County, Pennsylvania Amish community. I had this spot in mind for a re-visit ever since I was here in 2015, and was happy – though not surprised – to see it was still in business when I visited the community earlier this…
Ben takes the lead on this bouncy rendition of another gospel classic – “City of Gold”. Like the last song we looked at, this one appeared on the duo’s album, and now gets a video. There was something a bit odd here though – this one was released at the same time as “Lily of the Valley”. I wondered why, as Ben and Rose typically…
Many of you probably recognize the name Don Burke as someone who has provided many wonderful photos for the site here over the years – as well as a number of excellent guest posts about visits to Amish communities. In today’s post, Don shares with us how he first came to visit one of the Amish communities he grew to know well – that of…
Ben & Rose are back with their rendition of “Lily of the Valley”, an old gospel classic. This is another track from their album, which they are just releasing a video for now. And it’s another which dates back a good ways – written by Charles William Fry in England in 1881, for the Salvation Army. Here’s more on the interesting back story of the…
And by “spill the beans”, that doesn’t exactly mean they share all the juicy details people might imagine. It’s more about sharing the reality that not all Amish youth (or even most of them) have the wild growing-up period that has taken hold in the popular imagination, thanks to TV and other media. Laura Pitcher of the UK’s Dazed magazine interviewed five Amish youth in…
Author and Amish taxi driver Haley Straw shares part four of a four-part Christmas series. It follows the true story of a young boy from Chicago, whose longing for warmth and belonging sends him on an unlikely winter journey toward an Amish community he’d only read about in a library book. This retelling draws from the original “Please Let Me Stay” account shared in a private family history book….
One year after Ben & Rose were first covered in the publication, Saving Country Music has returned to the musical Amish couple, sharing some behind-the-scenes about their lives and background. I know a lot of people have had some questions about that – including some of the Amish folks in Lancaster County who I talked with recently. I heard a few things here and there,…