The same reader who shared with us about Ada the quiltmaker offers some impressions of Amish women in general: How many never-married 60-something Amish women are out there?  The one I know has a very distinct individuality that I believe is due to her single status which has freed her to be the open, in-your-face sort of gal she is. Not that Brownville is lacking strong-willed women…
A reader shares the following thoughts on his friend Ada, an Amish quiltmaker. Â Per request I have changed people/place names and one minor detail. I liked this: It never ceases to amaze me at the openly honest and frank relationship I have with my friend Ada. Â She is the daughter of my first real friend, her father Reuben who passed away a few years ago….
On Friday we had a look at a West Tennessee Amish community, including some signs of Amish businesses in the settlement. Â Today Brenda shares a little bit about one of those businesses, a local Amish doll maker: My Amish friend, Kathy, asked me to help her come up with an idea to make some extra money, which was needed to help her husband, Mahlon, pay…
Amish Workshops has posted a great look at the process Amish women go through to pin up their hair.  The article features over 2 dozen photos illustrating the procedure. Amish women don’t display their hair for Biblically-based reasons. They also do not cut their hair, pinning it all up underneath a kapp, or prayer covering. When I posted this article on the Amish America Facebook…
Amish women let their hair grow, so they have a lot of it. Â Hair pins keep all those locks in place, up underneath a prayer covering. I thought I’d give you a look at some plain hair pins. Â I picked these up at an Amish dry goods shop (not for personal use, demonstration purposes only, ha-ha). They’re thick and sturdy, about 3 inches long, and…
You asked some great questions. Â I originally said I would just choose some of them to answer. Â But in the end I decided to answer them all. Â It took about 5 hours, so I hope you enjoy it. Â I certainly did. But before we get to that, we have three winners of Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive. Â As usual,…
One distinguishing characteristic of the Pinecraft Amish community in Florida is that it attracts Amish from a range of backgrounds, many of whom are seasonal visitors. Because of this, Amish at Pinecraft are likely to follow differing guidelines for daily living (or at least do so while in their home communities). These guidelines, which take in everything from technology used to style of clothing, are…
Today, part 2 of the interview with professors Hurst and McConnell, on their new book on the Holmes County Amish, An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World’s Largest Amish Community. Â If you missed the first part, or would like to find out how to enter a drawing to win the book, check out Part 1 of the Amish Paradox interview. Today we…
Pastry samples at a Flavor retail store Donald Kraybill shares some photos and comments from a recent lecture trip to Japan. Professor Kraybill recently spent a week at universities in Tokyo and Gifu and at the Shibunkaku Art Museum in Kyoto, speaking on the Amish. The Amish are quite well-known in Japan, with perhaps more books on the Amish having been translated into Japanese than…
With an average of around seven children, Amish families are hefty by modern standards. Farm families tend to be the biggest. A dozen or more children is not rare. But the largest Amish family ever? Read on to learn about one possibility: John Troyer, who lived near Kokomo, Indiana, had an unusually large family, perhaps the largest of all time among the Amish or Mennonites. …