Day Two in Holmes County was a great one. I had a chance to catch up with a lot of Amish friends and acquaintances. I sat for an hour and a half having a nice chat with one friend, ‘Johnnie’, who just had his fifth child (all girls!). He gave me a bottle of homemade blackberry wine to take away. He, like many Amish, appreciates…
I’m still picking the splinters out of my hands this morning and counting up the nicks and scratches on my arms. The Amish broke a city boy in yesterday. But it was only about three and a half hours, so I guess they went easy on me. Hay is ‘made’ in groups. It’s something Amish farmers need to do regularly in the growing season. I…
The Amish arrange themselves into compact groupings known as church districts. Each district has its own name, usually a geographically-based one–Lamoni South, Randolph, and Crab Orchard are examples of places providing names for districts, these being found in Iowa, Mississippi, and Kentucky Amish communities. Since the Amish travel by horse-and-buggy to one another’s homes for Sunday service, most districts are grouped together in a logical,…
The Sugarcreek, Ohio Budget newspaper is a vital print lifeline stretching across the diverse Anabaptist settlements of North and South America. Founded in 1890, this weekly paper out of Sugarcreek, Ohio, serves as an information exchange for families sometimes separated by great distances and formidable technological barriers. The Budget is among the favorites when it comes to Amish reading material. Budget ‘scribes’ regularly report on…
photo: Randall Persing Amish women let their hair grow from birth. If you ever catch an Amish female with her hair down, the sheer length of it can be surprising. In fact, with locks often reaching well past waist-length, the typical Amish head-covering seems to somehow bend the laws of physics. Where is their room for it all up there? A quick diversion: A follicle…
The Amish & alcohol When I was first learning about the Amish, I was kind of surprised to discover that some Amish people drink alcohol. As I met more and more Amish people, I kept running across examples of this. That’s not to say that alcohol is a big part of Amish society across-the-board. But neither is it completely absent from Amish culture, as outsiders…
The caption accompanying the above photo in an AP story on Amish and gas usage reads: “Using real horse power to get around, an Amish buggy makes its way through Middlefield, Ohio, unconcerned about the rising gas prices…” Actually, the Amish aren’t as oblivious to rising gas prices as we might think. While it’s true they don’t have to worry about filling up a gas-slurping…
Despite what you may read or hear elsewhere, no Old Order Amish live in California today. That said, you will find related groups, such as Beachy Amish (similar to horse-and-buggy Amish, but they use cars and more tech) or Mennonites. But it’s good to keep in mind that these related groups like Mennonites are not Amish – though they have some things in common. Amish…
What to do when you’re a retired Amish bishop? Maybe a lecture tour. That could be what one Amish leader has in mind in northern Indiana. Goshen News reports that ‘Atlee Dan’ Miller recently gave a talk on Amish history and the settlement of his region, Amish education, and church splits to an audience at the Topeka Historical Society. The talk was held in the…
photo: Jerry Olson/Post-Bulletin Some Amish in Minnesota will need a new outlet for their milk. The last creamery in Minnesota to accept milk in cans–mostly provided by local Amish–no longer does. I guess you call that an end of an era. Milk is an important liquid in Amish America. And surprisingly, a controversial one as well. Some Amish farmers have gotten in trouble for selling raw…