Two Amish Girls Abducted in New York (Updated: Girls Found Alive; Arrests Made)

ByErik Wesner
61 Comments

Local news outlets are reporting that two Amish girls in upstate New York have been abducted while tending their family’s produce stand (Note: since the girls have now been found, the Amber Alert info, artist’s sketch, news station videos, and the girls’ names, originally included with this post, have been removed).  The St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s office has activated the Amber Alert for New York state. The thing you…

Signs of Food in Amish Country (10 Photos)

Signs of Food in Amish Country (10 Photos)

ByErik Wesner
19 Comments

Now is a great time to get produce from Amish stands. David Arment of Arment Photography has ten photos today featuring various foods in Amish country, and the signs which advertise it. About half of these are produce, and half we can just call “other”. I’m not sure all of them are from Amish businesses, but most are. Which shot do you like best? What…

“The Outsiders”: The Amish on MacGyver

“The Outsiders”: The Amish on MacGyver

ByErik Wesner
35 Comments

MacGyver used to be one of my favorite television programs. If you don’t know the show, Angus MacGyver was the secret agent-science whiz famous for using his quick wits to escape precarious situations. Each episode featured MacGyver working his wizardry to get out of yet another jam, using only his inventive powers and whatever resources were at hand. As an operative for the fictional Phoenix Foundation, MacGyver was constantly thwarting bad…

When a son joins the Amish: We are wimps!

When a son joins the Amish: We are wimps!

ByErik Wesner
82 Comments

One of our readers, Anne, has a son named Ed (not his real name) who became Amish a few years ago. We hear from Anne from time to time in this ongoing series called “When a son joins the Amish”. Anne has previously written about the photo policy when she visits her son, a hard winter, her friends’ reaction to her son’s conversion, and dental problems. Anne recently…

A Visit to the Amish of Arthur, Illinois (24 Photos)

A Visit to the Amish of Arthur, Illinois (24 Photos)

ByErik Wesner
25 Comments

The Arthur Amish community occupies a special place with me. This was where I first really got to know something about Amish people. As an outsider who knew nothing about them, I never intended to “study the Amish”. I could scarcely have had any idea where things might lead when I knocked on that first Amish farmhouse door ten years ago. As I tell in the foreword of…

Growing Up Amish Excerpt: Youngie, Buggies & Horses

ByErik Wesner
12 Comments

Following our look at a $9,681 Amish buggy, we’ve got an excerpt from Richard Stevick’s Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years which explores the topic of Amish youth and their horsepowered vehicles. In this selection taken from Chapter Seven (“Singings: The First Step to Independence”), we learn about the many ways the Youngie adorn their buggies (including one surprising modification I had never heard of before, see…

Bergholz Beard-Cutting Convicts Return from Prison

ByErik Wesner
9 Comments

Last year, Sam Mullet received 15 years for his role in beard and hair cutting attacks on Amish in eastern Ohio. But 15 others got lesser terms, ranging from a year and a day to seven years. The first of the Bergholz people have now done their time and returned home to eastern Ohio. A Reuters news piece details how two of the group, married couple Raymond and Kathryn Miller, spent…

5 More Points on the Amish Population in 2014

ByErik Wesner
12 Comments

We started the week talking Amish population–so why don’t we close doing more of the same! First, there were a number of interesting points from the recent Young Center Amish population data that I wanted to share, but couldn’t really fit on the Amish population infographic: There are 480 Amish settlements, but most are small. Fifty-two percent of all settlements are just one district in size. There…

Amish-Made Maple Syrup

Amish-Made Maple Syrup

ByErik Wesner
24 Comments

It’s not exactly the season for making maple syrup, but it’s always the season for eating it, right? David Arment shares photos of syrup being made, along with the finished product, a remarkably dark syrup which I’m sorry I can’t sample over the internet somehow. David explains: We lived on 15 acres of wooded ground. One of the local Amish guys asked if he could…

Less asthma, thanks to an Amish lifestyle?

Less asthma, thanks to an Amish lifestyle?

ByErik Wesner
17 Comments

I’m not an asthma sufferer, but I found this pretty fascinating. A recent study by researchers at Franklin and Marshall College suggests that something about the Amish or their lifestyle may be connected to lower rates of asthma. From the Lancaster Online article: Living on farms and coming from large families are considered protective factors against asthma, just as city dwelling is a risk factor,…