Amish America

Credit cards, nuclear power, and funny cigars

Okay, just a bit lazy today on the Amish blog and trying to get my act together to go run however many miles in the freezing Polish weather (snowed yesterday!), so I am going to do a little roll call of some of my favorite posts from the past year:

Do the Amish use credit cards?

Settlements that failed:  an evangelistic Amish group in Ohio gets 'nuked'.

Selling the Amish:  from upscale furniture to Amish cigars.

Hope you like 'em, thanks to all for reading!

John Hostetler on Amish food

From Amish Society, Fourth Edition:

'...there are many myths about Amish foods.  There is the legend of "seven sweets and seven sours" on Amish tables.  The only place I have ever eaten seven sweets and sours is in a tourist hotel.  The tourist industry has done well in capitalizing on myths, judging by the number of restaurants that cater to "Amish" foods.  Advertised items such as "Amish soda," "Amish highball," or some kinds of pastries are obviously an outsider's capitalization on the tourists' determination to find something distinctively Amish.  Over fifty "Dutch" restaurants have emerged in some Amish localities.  Mennonite or former Amish persons serve as cooks in these kitchens.  Most outsiders are not able to distinguish between restaurants that serve "real" Amish dishes as oppposed to "fake" ones.'



Amish highball?!?

I say go straight to the source.


I've had the good fortune to share meals with Amish friends a number of times.  Last time was in Ohio at Johnnie and Kathryn's.  On finishing, I told Kathryn, in all sincerity, that what I just ate qualified for meal of the year. 


(Except for every one of yours, Mom, of course!  Especially the spaghetti.  Uhh, I may land in hot water for this one.)

Bonus:  More food!  Sunday snitz pie, Amish ketchup and other condiments, and 'haystacks'.  

Selling the Amish, continued

Here's an ad for Amish Naturals pasta.

It hits all the main points--made by Amish hands, ingredients cultivated in the heart of Ohio's Amish country, water from Amish wells, and the noodle plant was even constructed by Amish workers. 

Plus it's all-organic. 

As the Amish population continues its explosive growth, 'wellness living'  increases in popularity, and the Amish mystique shines ever brighter, city folk hankering for things like 'simplicity', 'goodness', and 'all-natural' will be buying this type of stuff more and more. 

More power to them.  To use some Seth Godin terminology, the Amish brand tells a story that more and more of us want to hear.

Amish for Sale

'Amish' sells. 

Whether it's an overpriced bag of trail mix or a six-figure kitchen cabinet installation, people gravitate towards the implicit quality of anything with the Amish label. 

Exactly what does that label mean anyway?

Does tobacco grown in the general vicinity of Amish country count as 'Amish'?  What about an RV produced at a factory with Amish workers?  Does an Amish person actually have to make the product, or sell it, or just handle it at some point along the way?

'Amishness' is a bit of a mystery.  Just where does it come from?

There really is no regulatory body for this sort of thing.  Would be nice if there was.  Then the Amish could get rid of some of the freeriders. 

Truth be told, most Amish don't like explicitly promoting their products with their name.  But a lot of other people do.  Freeriders on the Amish name are all over the place in Amish Country.  The Amish find this slightly annoying.  But they live with it.  Suing is out of the question, and how could you do it, even if you wanted to?  There is no 'Amish' trademark.


It's still one heck of a brand, though.