"Buggies, Beards, Barefeet, and Bonnets"
The Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
by: Bobby McDonald
As one drives into the bucolic area of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, you're certain to immediately notice the buggies, beards, barefeet, and bonnets of the Old Order Amish. The roads will be "dotted" with "horse apples" and traffic soon comes to a crawl, as life seems to slow down to accommodate the oldest Old Order settlement in the United States, where a group of people have proven that it is possible to live without television, cell phones, fast moving cars, tractors and modern farming equipment, as they live the "plain life." Herein lies the secrets to a deeper religious philosophy to which the Amish strictly adhere.
The mailboxes read with names such as Stolzfus, Esh, Zook, Beiler, and Lapp. And, the food fare is "out of this world" with chicken chowder soup, baked corn, pulled pork and sourkraut, shoofly pie, Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing, Amish Friendship Bread, and muenster and cheddar cheeses. You're in the heart of Pennsylvania Amish Country, in communities such as Intercourse, Lancaster, New Holland, Blue Ball, Paradise, Bird In Hand, and numerous others.
I don't know about you, but I've always been facinated by the Amish, and quite frankly, come away from a visit to their settlements with a sence of awe and feeling of guilt about my own religious convictions. Their deep convictions make my commitments seem so shallow in comparison. They truly live out their faith on a daily basis, regardless of what others think or do!
The Amish take their name from Jacob Ammann, a seventeenth century leader, who was a part of the original Antabaptist movement. Ammann and other early church leaders espoused a life of conservative living practices and a separation from the world. Today, the Amish remain one of the most conservative religious orders in America and "wear their faith" for all the world to see.
The early Amish in Europe were severely persecuted for their religious beliefs, as they were drowned, burned at the stake, and tortured to death, because of their religion. Thus, they sought a place where they could practice their religious beliefs without fear of persecution, and when in the early 18th Century, William Penn, offered both the Amish and Mennonites refuge in the area of Southwestern Pennsylvania, they migrated to the U.S. Today, from this orginal colony, located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, you will find large Amish and Mennonite settlements in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, New York, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Delaware, and even in Texas. The largest poplulation of the Amish, now is located in and around Holmes County, Ohio. They number some 90,000 in the U.S. and with no birth control, a relatively low birth mortality rate, and several other factors, the religious sect, continues to grow larger.
The Amish are readily identified by their homespun clothing, with women wearing mostly solid colored dresses, in black, blue, brown, or green, with a white or black apron over the dress, and a white cap worn on the head. The cap finds its orgin in the New Testament scripture, "But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head." The women mostly wear their hair parted down the middle and gathered in the back, in a bun.
Men wear black or dark blue pants, held up with suspenders, and the sects differ in the solid color of the shirts that they wear, mostly matching the color of the dresses that the women in that order wear, in shades of blue, brown, grey, white or green. The dress wear includes a coat with no lapels and usually consists of a white shirt, but no tie. The men are readily identified by their straw hats with flat brims, in the summertime, and their black felt hats in the winter months. Both men and women's clothing are fastened with a "hook and eye" system, instead of buttons.
Amish men that are married can be identified by a beard that encircles the outer part of the face, but without a mustache, as they shave their upper lips. The children dress identical to their adult counterparts and mostly go barefooted during the warm periods of the year.
The Amish mode of transportation is their infamous horse-drawn buggies, that you must watch for constantly throughout the Lancaster County area, as you never know when you'll meet "head on" with a spirited horse pulling a buggy full of Amish people, or make a bend in the road and find one just ahead of you. The amish buggy serves as a means of "courting" for the young, hauling supplies and produce to market, and meeting all the family needs of travel. The particular style of buggy used in each settlement is determinied by the bishop of that group and they can vary in styles. All buggies now will feature a "slow moving vehicle" sign on the back, for safety reasons and protection.
The Amish have always espoused the bucolic lifestyle and perfer to be engaged in the tilling of the soil and one with nature. Their primary goal in life is to own their own farm and raise their family on the farm, with other families in their church community. Their religious beliefs encompasses the tilling of the soil and taking care of the earth that they have been afforded to live upon. The Amish are neat and orderly in their farming practices and they take pride in hard work and excellent farm management. Most farms are "family sized" or only large enough to support the farmer and his children, who supply most all of the work on the farm. They practice crop rotation practices, fertilization with their own animal waste, and other procees of reinvesting back into the land, when they can.
Another sign of an Amish farm is the large barns, that are community projects, where neighbors in a church district will gather together to build a barn for their neighbor.
The Old Order Amish use only draft animals for powering their farm equipment, but have adapted the more modern technologies of farming equipment, to use horse-drawn power. The Amish farmstead can readily be identified with a pen of huge draft animals that are used in cultivating, harvesting, and tilling the soil. And, a large portion of the Amish in Lancaster County milk cows, using gasoline driven milking equipment or power generators.
Farmers in the Lancaster County area raise corn, wheat, barley, alfalfa, and even tobacco. They also raise large gardens and sell produce both at local markets and at roadside stands, beside their farms. Some of the most wonderful produce, fresh eggs, and baked goods can be purchased at their locations. The Amish women can and preserve most all of the food that their families eat and the women and girls are kept busy throughout the growing season canning, while they sell the surplus produce, and some of their canned fruits and vegetables.
Amish baked goods are among the "prized" foods when traveling through Amish Country, and available at all of the local markets and eating establishments. Typical baked items include breads, cakes, pies, and cookies and may be offered with root beer, jams and jellies, chow-chow, and canned vegetables, from a farm stand, along with fresh produce and brown eggs.
The Amish home also carries out the simple lifestyle, and are well kept, with flowers and the gardens beside the home. The family wash will be seen on a cable line, may be stretched from the back door to the barn, and colorful family quilts may be "sunning" on the fence or clothes line. Quilting is an Amish tradition and many of the beautiful handmade quilts are available in local markets and outlets.
As you can see, the Amish are industrious people, believing that idle hands are the devil's workshop, so children are taught at an early age to fulfill age appropriate tasks and contribute to their family income. Amish children are educated in their own schools and only attend formal education through the eighth grade. Then, they will take their place in the family business or apprentice in an approved trade. The Amish schools are completely funded by the Amish community and teachers are usually an unmarried woman, who teaches the basics of reading, writing, arthmetic, spelling, geography, and social studies. Plain white schoolhouses will dot the area of Amish settlements and provide for the formal educations of the children.
Amish Chocolate Whoopie Pies......
A trip to Lancaster County is sure to to be awe-inspiring, with scenic homes and farmsteads, outstanding eating establishments, and handmade quilts and wood products. It's a "step back in time" to a lifestyle that is both gratifying and simple.
Enjoy the pictures from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Amish Shoofly Pie.....
Amish Graffiti....
And, the Amish at the beach....
A Few Amish Recipes
Coleslaw
1 large head of cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup onion, cut up
1/2 cup carrots, finely chopped or cut up
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
2 cups sugar
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup vinegar
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. mustard
Mix all ingredients together, and let sit for two or
three hours before serving, in a cool place.
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Apple Sauce
Fill a 12 quart kettle with apples, peeled and cored.
Add 3 cups sugar
Cook until apples are soft,
stirring often
Season with cinnamon
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Amish Funeral Pie
1 cup seeded raisins, washed
2 cups water
1 egg, well beaten
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons flour
juice of one lemon
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
pinch of salt
Soak raisins for three hours in water. Mix sugar, flour,
and egg. Add sesonings and raisins and water. Cook over
hot water for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the
mixtue is cooled, empty into a pie-dough lined plate. Cover
pie with narrow strips of dough, criss-crossed and bake
until browned.
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Shoo-Fly Pie
For the cumb part:
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
work the above ingredients together with fingers
For the Liquid part:
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
a pinch of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup hot water
Mix other ingredients together and add the hot water.
Pour into an unbaked pie shell, combing the crumbs and
liquid in alternate layers, with crumbs on bottom and top.
Bake 15 minutes at 450 degrees, then 20 minutes at
350 degrees.
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Peach Dumplings
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup milk or cream
2 cups sliced peaches
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups hot water
Make a syrup of the sugar with the butter and 2 cups of hot water.
Add the peaches. Let this come to a boil. Make dumplings by mixing
flour and baking powder and salt into fairly stiff batter with
milk or cream. Drop large spoonfuls of this batter into the boiling
syrup and peaches. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.
Serve hot!
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