A few months ago we looked at three, frankly, off-the-wall Amish myths I’d come across in various places online.  Donald Kraybill has a new article out on six other, I would say more widely-held, myths about the Amish.  They are: 1. The Amish Are Slowly Dying Out 2. The Amish Are Technophobes 3. The Amish Don’t Pay Taxes or Vote 4. Amish Elders Arrange Marriages 5. Because…
Today we have some photos courtesy of Bob Rosier, taken in the sole Amish community in Texas (in Bee County, about 90 miles southeast of San Antonio). We’ve featured posts on this community before (see Bee County, Texas Amish), as well as on now-defunct Texas Amish settlements (see Amish in Texas), if you’d like to catch up on the story of the Amish in the Lone…
It seems Amish will milk just about anything there is a market for.  Lately I’ve even been hearing whisperings of Amish milking camels.  Well, why not.  So I wasn’t at all surprised yesterday to find an article on a Lancaster Amish camel dairy: LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Let’s get the obvious questions about camel’s milk out of the way first. It tastes like skim milk, just…
Reader Ed C has shared some photos of Lancaster County firefighters putting out a blaze in the Strasburg area in winter 2012. You can read this post for more background on Amish serving on fire companies in the Lancaster community. Amish are involved in more than a token way on fire companies in Lancaster County, with one official estimating up to 300 Plain firefighters serving…
Since getting back from northern Indiana Monday night, I’ve been thinking about ways to share my trip with you. I usually return from these Amish journeys with a jumble of thoughts and photos…some of them become posts and some just sort of evaporate. In the interest of capturing as much of that as possible, I thought I’d just share a bunch of photos I took,…
When you visit an Amish community, you expect to see fields of some sort of crop like corn. Â While you will see traditional grains sprouting in Amish areas of northern Indiana, you’ll also see fields of another crop–recreational vehicles, with row after row of the machines lined up outside the many factories and dealerships scattered about the region. The Elkhart-Lagrange and Nappanee Amish communities have…
Countrylane Bakery & Gifts 4224 S 450 W Berne, IN 46711 Countrylane Bakery & Gifts (Adams County, IN) I am visiting Amish communities in northern Indiana this week.  Yesterday I was in Adams County for a little while. I needed a pie for a dinner later in the evening in Lagrange County, and so embarked on a bakery expedition. I first stopped by R & E…
This was taken at the 2012 Clinic for Special Children auction in Leola, Pennsylvania. Â The photographer recalls his first car, purchased for $2000 in the 1970s: “Even allowing for inflation, I got sticker shock from the sign on the buggy window!” I don’t monitor buggy prices, but my impression has been that the buggies in Lancaster are among the more expensive, or at least can…
While playing Amish taxi a few days ago, I found myself behind a buggy on one of Lancaster County’s countless curvy backroads, unsure whether it was safe to pass or not. Â Lancaster is hilly, and the roads go this way and that, with buggies everywhere, so you do this a good bit. I decided to wait, with a couple of vehicles behind me, until the…
Just back from Lancaster County. Â We had a good discussion the other evening at a cookout with some English and Amish friends. Youth issues, clothing, and church standards were among the Amish-related topics on the table. Â All accompanied by fire-grilled hot dogs, heirloom tomatoes, and S’mores and fresh berries for dessert. Â Hard to beat that. Talk at one point turned to the question of why…