Usually right around this time each year, I notice at uptick in visits to the Amish State Guide. I attribute it to people looking for info on Amish communities with the coming of spring and summer. Are you visiting an Amish community this year? Â Or have you already? Â Here’s a list of Amish settlements I plan to, or already have visited, in 2013 (plus a…
An Amish fur buyer in northern Indiana.  No photos of the furs, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.  I had “fur buyer” on one of the lists of odd Amish jobs, focusing on Holmes County, Ohio.  Here is a reader comment about another in a Minnesota Amish community “where they process all types of fur and also salt deer hides”.
 A new Amish settlement is started, on average, every few weeks. Today there are around 700 Amish communities in North America. Most were founded over the past 20-some years. Amish migration has gotten much attention recently. New settlements appearing in places like Colorado, Maine, and New York attest to a pioneer spirit which has not waned since Amish first settled the Americas in the…
Below, the menu items for the Amish youth mystery supper, courtesy of Don Curtis. Some of these were pretty tough. How did you do? 1. Hygiene Essential – water 2. Colorful Downfall – mixed fruit salad 3. Healthy Rollups – dinner rolls 4. Variety Pack – broccoli and veggie salad 5. Point of Decision – fork 6. Pigs Disgrace – meatloaf 7. Foreign Fundraiser –…
Just out in the Columbus Dispatch, news on a possible compromise over the outhouse issue in the Amish community in Hardin County, Ohio: KENTON, Ohio — A truce has been reached, at least for now, between the Amish of Hardin County and health officials. The two sides have been at odds over rules for wells and outhouses at new Amish homes. With a clock ticking…
Amish youth at Belle Center, Ohio (and elsewhere) may take part in a fun social event called a “Mystery Supper”. Â Mark Curtis shares how this unusual meal works (thanks to Don Curtis for relaying the details): The youth come in and sit down for supper. Â At their place is a plate and a list of numbered blanks. The blanks must be completely filled out in…
Valerie Weaver-Zercher is the author of the newly-released Thrill of the Chaste: The Allure of Amish Romance Novels.  Valerie is a writer and editor whose work has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Mennonite Weekly Review, and other publications. In examining the topics raised in Thrill of the Chaste over the past few weeks, we’ve looked at Amish fiction readers, authenticity, and how readers choose Amish…
This ice kiosk is located just south of Shipshewana, Indiana. The person who shares it explains that “it’s fully automated, takes bills and dispenses ice in bags or bulk.” Though some Amish use ice houses, Amish in this northern Indiana community permit home refrigerators and freezers such as those made by companies like Crystal Cold of Arcola, Illinois, or Shipshewana-area E-Z Freeze. Update: Not all Amish…
This is technically a repair shop (Mullet’s Repair Shop in northern Indiana) but they make a popular stove used by Amish.  The reader who sent these photos in notes that Mullet’s Repair “are the makers of the Mullet Coal Stove which is without a doubt the most commonly used stove in the community.”  The Mullet Coal Stove brochure: Inside you’ll find technical and safety info. The…
Energy companies are apparently losing enthusiasm for oil drilling in Ohio’s Utica Shale. Â Oil in the Utica has proven more difficult than expected to extract, according to this article from Bloomberg: U.S. drillers that set up rigs amid the rolling farmland of eastern Ohio on projections underground shale held $500 billion of oil are packing up. Four of the biggest stakeholders in untapped deposits known…