My friend Mose Smucker was in the news over the weekend. Mose is an Amish father of 8 (and grandfather of more) who currently runs a meat shop and sandwich stand at bustling Reading Terminal Market in downtown Philadelphia (grab a sandwich from Mose if you’re ever in the neighborhood, if he’s not around his daughters are often there running the show). Mose used to run…
A new study seems to show that Amish children are “remarkably immune” to both allergies and asthma. Researchers compared a group of Indiana Amish children to Swiss children from both farm and non-farm environments. Swiss farm kids were over 3 times as likely to show a predisposition to allergies than Amish children, while Swiss non-farm children were over 6 times as likely. The Amish asthma…
Is this the next road battle for the Amish? A local news station did an investigative piece on young Amish drivers in Indiana (the Swiss Amish settlements in Allen and Adams Counties). They discovered children aged 12, 11, and even 10 driving horse-drawn vehicles. If you’ve spent time in Amish communities, that shouldn’t come as a big shock. Amish children learn to drive horse-drawn vehicles…
We have another nice batch of photos today from Tom in NY, though I hesitated to post them at first. Not because they are controversial, but because the weather depicted in them is so different from what I have been enjoying the past few days–a perfect 70-75 degrees and sunny as anything. But in the end I’m hardly superstitious, so why not. Tom took these…
I thought it might be nice to share something from The Connection magazine with you today. “The Life of a Farmer’s Wife” appears in each issue courtesy of Lena Yoder of Topeka, Indiana. Lena is an Amish mom just doing her best with husband Wayne to run a family and a farm. As she writes in a previous column, “Some days I wonder just why…
Grace Leads Me Home by Marlene Miller Marlene C. Miller grew up Marlene Bailey in a little town on the edge of the Holmes County, Ohio Amish settlement. One day while ice-skating, Marlene meets Johnny Miller, an Amish boy five years her senior. She would later marry Johnny, join the Amish church at age 23, and have ten children. She remains Amish to this day….
Today Tom has some photos for us of an Amish tarp shop in Conewango Valley in New York. Though we just had a look at odd Amish jobs, I wouldn’t place tarp shops on that list, as they aren’t that unusual, and can be found in many communities. If you didn’t know better you might find yourself impressed by this Amishman’s taste in recreational vehicles… …and his boat…
Last October we had a look at some unusual occupations in Michigan Amish communities. I was recently going through an Ohio Amish directory while doing book research and came across more uncommon Amish jobs. Amish church directories vary. Some have the head of household’s occupation listed; others don’t. Sometimes the listing is just a generic description of the job (“Mason” or “Roofer” or “Bakery”). At times…
National Geographic has developed Amish: Out of the Order (you may remember this program from late 2010, featuring ex-Amishman Mose Gingerich) into a full-fledged series. It will air in 10 parts this spring and is named, nearly identically, Amish: Out of Order. I found the original program interesting but wonder if they’ll be able to get enough mileage out of the concept for a full series….
While I was in the US in February, we had Amish visitors at my parents’ home in North Carolina. One morning one of our guests took it upon herself to whip up a truly scrumptious breakfast casserole. It took about 15 minutes to do, she said. Wow. At the 15-minute mark I am still trying to find a clean pot and determine which ingredients in…