I wanted to point out a book written by Suzanne Woods Fisher called Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World, just released last month. I liked a couple of things about this book in particular. Suzanne has a real gift for writing, and my blurb on the back cover, that she “plants the reader inside Amish living rooms, barns, kitchens, and schoolhouses” I wouldn’t…
Rustic Russ reports on the Yoder Horse and Carriage Auction in Mount Pleasant, MI. Russ has a nice site with a number of Michigan Amish posts and photos. Furniture is among the many items sold at Amish auctions; woodworking has become a chief industry among Amish, many of whom have opened small businesses in recent years. Read more on Amish woodcraft in the state: Amish…
The last installment, of three, from the recent Lancaster County trip: When I’m at Abe’s, on Saturdays we sometimes do a big breakfast down by the river out back. This involves Chef Abe grilling up a variety of meats–sausage, bacon, spicy sausage, etc, on an open riverside fire (though this time he used the grill up by the house). Eggs, toast, jelly, sliced peaches, pancakes,…
Notes from the recent Lancaster trip, part two: Normally I drive an old, wheezing-but-somehow-still running red truck. It’s got, let’s see, around 275,000 miles? But like an old faithful dog or a worn-but-still-comfy-recliner, we’ve been through a lot together, and it’s just hard to get rid of it. Abe calls it ‘the squeaky truck’ in reference to the telltale noise it makes, by which he…
Just back from Lancaster County. Has been a whirlwind of finishing the final manuscript (submitted), looking ahead to finish the Polish-language Amish book (nearly done), and another top-secret project or two. But in between running around the County a few interesting happenings happened. I dragged my father up this time, for an intense week in Amish Boot Camp. When you are accustomed to the accoutrements…
Back in June I posted on Japanese interest in the Amish and included some comments and photos from Donald Kraybill, fresh from a lecture tour of the island nation. Since that time, Stephen Scott, also of the Young Center, has visited Japan to share knowledge on America’s best-known Plain People. In this article from today’s Lancaster Sunday News (no longer online) Kraybill and Scott share…
Just got a hot tip from the Young Center that the 2009 Amish population statistics are up at the Amish Studies web site. A couple quick things I noticed between this year’s and last year’s numbers: on the lower end, Arkansas has jumped from 1 to 3 settlements, and the Maine Amish, Montana Amish, and Kansas Amish have all added a settlement. Ohio, Pennsylvania, and…
Hutterites are Anabaptist cousins of the Amish who share certain traits in common, including plain dress, the practice of social shunning, and adult baptism. They differ in a few key areas, including technology–Hutterites accept a wide array of technologies, including the automobile, but especially those that help increase yield on the wide parcels of land they farm. While Amish live in individual homes next to…
An Amish acquaintance in Lebanon County, PA has kindly passed on a link to a Lancaster Sunday News story I’d missed from a couple of weeks back. Demonstrating that unceasing Amish innovative drive, it seems the folks at Stoltzfus Coach Supply have hitched up a new buggy alternator (no longer online) device to keep running lights juiced. The alternator solves two issues–the danger of a…
Outsiders sometimes express a desire to join the Amish. As an Amish authority explains in Richard Stevick's Growing up Amish: The Teenage Years, seekers often come with misguided notions: "When seekers from the outside come to us wanting to be Amish," explained a bishop, "they are often attracted for the wrong reasons. They could have fallen in love with one of our Youngie. Or they…