I grew up washing my hands in the kitchen sink when I came in from outdoors and often before meals. Mostly because it was the most convenient one, and for that matter, really the only one, unless you wanted to walk to one of the bathrooms in the back of the house. I just spent some time visiting with Mark Curtis in the Amish community…
Sentences have been given in the Amish beard-cutting case: The leader of a dissident Amish sect was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday for a series of bizarre beard- and hair-cutting attacks on other Ohio Amish that drew national attention. Samuel Mullet Sr., 67, the leader, was sentenced in Federal District Court in Cleveland, for coordinating assaults that prosecutors argued were motivated by…
Earlier this week we heard from a reader who visited the Unity, Maine Amish community. Â We learned about the Kenneth and Katie Copp family, who run a pair of businesses, the Living Grains Bakery and Locust Grove Woodworks. In the video below Kenneth gives a brief tour of the workings of his horse-powered mill which produces the flour used in Living Grains. Â You’ve also got…
Last summer we first heard from Anne, whose son Ed a few years ago joined an Amish community in Minnesota.  Anne shared her experience as an English mother to an Amish son in posts on language challenges at Ed’s wedding, friends’ reactions, and expectations regarding photos. Becoming Amish is not easy to do, which is probably as it’s meant to be.  One reason is the change in…
From a story just published: Some Amish are asking for a life sentence for the man convicted of beard cutting attacks. The U.S. Attorney in Cleveland has received 14 letters from Amish in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, in which a “long” or “life” sentence for renegade Amish bishop Sam Mullet, Sr., is requested. Fourteen letters is more than just one or two isolated people writing.  No…
Being a bit off the beaten path, we haven’t had too much on this site about Amish communities in Maine. Â A reader recently visited the settlement at Unity and had the following story and photos to share. Â — My family was up in Maine this past weekend looking at land to purchase in Unity or Thorndike. The parcel we are most interested in is located…
Over the weekend an Amish teen in Vernon County, Wisconsin died while cutting ice. In light of today’s topic of Amish and self-sufficiency, it seems tragically coincidental to now hear of an accident like this one. In more conservative communities, Amish use ice houses to keep food cold. Â In cold-weather areas Amish harvest their own ice. Â In some sense these Amish are further along the…
When you read or watch something about the Amish, you might be told that they live separately from the world. It may be further implied or stated that the Amish are a self-sufficient people. Likewise, some seem to assume Amish wake to days full of churning butter, cobbling shoes, and forging metal goods. Seeing an Amish person filling a cart in Wal-Mart can send these folks into shock….
I had a massive craving for pie the other day, one which struck like lightning. Â In North Carolina I am over 2 hours from any Amish communities, so I headed posthaste to my local Kroger for the store-baked variety. The black raspberry pie I selected came in an attractive matte box which had encouraging things printed on it, like “Private Selection” and “Fresh Baked In…
Tom in New York checks in again today with a piece of technology that can be a necessity this time of year, depending on your latitude. This horse-drawn snow plow is at the ready on an Amish farm in the Conewango Valley in western New York. This machine was made by Pioneer Equipment of Dalton, Ohio, a well-known manufacturer of horse-drawn equipment in the Holmes…