The Amish Cook from Oasis Newsfeatures

HOMEMADE CHERRY BARS

editorkevin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:50:31 +0000

This is a delicious way to use a can of cherry pie filling or make your own homemade cherry pie filling using fresh cherries. This is a classic Amish concoction: simple and tasty.

1 cup margarine

1 1 /2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 3 /4 cups flour

1 1 /2 teaspoon baking powder

1 /2 teaspoon salt

21 ounce can of cherry pie filling

Preheat oven to 350. Mix margarine, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Mix until well-blended. Spread two-thirds of batter into a 10 X 15 inch pan. Pour pie filling over batter and spread. Drop rest of batter on top and spread. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Cool and cut into 1 inch square bars.

Amish and Divorce

editorkevin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:43:03 +0000

AMISH AND DIVORCE: While there are many variations in customs and traditions among individual Amish communities there are commonalities that all churches share and I’ll spend some time talking about them briefly over the weeks ahead. One constant among the Amish is that divorce is a taboo that is typically met with instant excommunication, so divorces are rare. Divorces DO happen, but not often. Amish courtships (there are exceptions to almost everything I am saying here, so don’t tell me about the Amish “quickie wedding” you know of) as a general rule tend to be long, because young people know that once they are hitched they likely are so for life. Of course, a dark side to this air-tight union for life is that some people - women primarily - can find themselves trapped in unions with an abusive or alcoholic spouse with few avenues for escape. But, again, this is more rare because couples tend to ferret out these problems during the course of their long courtships.

I had one married Amish woman tell me once that it was difficult to accept a casual friendship (i.e. such as one would have with a “taxi driver” for the Amish or a farmer neighbor) with a divorced NON-Amish man because she believed that he was still married because in her religion divorce is not recognized. “In my eyes, he’s still married,” she said. So if there is difficulty getting past the divorce issue when it applies to casual acquaintances outside the religion, you can imagine how acceptance of a divorced Amish person just wouldn’t be do-able.

Amish society, I think, makes it easier for Amish unions to endure than in the non-Amish world. Men and women have very distinct cultural roles in the marriage and life is often simpler - NOT easier, Amish life is very difficult - but it’s often simpler than in our world. A bountiful garden, a husband who can fix things, a wife who can bake bread, a sturdy buggy….the ingredients for contentment seem more accessible in Amish society. At least from this editor's observations

A Favorite: Fountain Acre Foods

editorkevin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:31:50 +0000

PHOTOS - The top photo is information about Fountain Acre Food's upcoming fall cheese sale and the bottom is just a section of their handwritten newsletter.

Okay, since my brain is blank at the moment for writing about anything, I’ll talk about one of my favorite Amish businesses: Fountain Acre Foods. I've written about them before, but, what the heck, I'll talk about them again.

Fountain Acre Foods is a busy business on US Route 27 just north of Richmond, Indiana. The store specializes in produce, bakery, and bulk items. It’s run by husband and wife duo Stevie and MaryAnn. When you visit you can sign up for a free snail mail (of course) newsletter, which comes a couple of times a year and is entirely handwritten.

The Wayne County, Indiana Amish settlement - which Fountain Acres is a part of - is relatively new. Most of the settlers - including Stevie and MaryAnn - came from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania beginning 5 or 6 years ago. Their customs are quite different than the Swiss Amish just up the road in the Berne area. The two groups don’t really interact. Anyway, Stevie and MaryAnn do a superb job of making customers almost feel like family from their homey like-from-a-friend newsletter to their Thanksgiving turkey specials to their twice annual cheese sale.

I’m not a shill for Fountain Acre Foods, they don’t know I’m writing this, I just promote the Amish-owned businesses that I really like and this is one of them. Their fall cheese sale is Wednesday, Sept 15 through Thursday, September 16. Most horns of cheese are 20 - 30 percent off full price. You can also place orders for freshly pressed grape juice and order locally-raised grass-fed turkeys for Thanksgiving.

Anyone who actually goes to Fountain Acres and takes a photo of the cheese and sends it to me, I’ll send you free copy of our new book “The Amish Cook’s Everything But the Kitchen Sink Book.”

Tragic Buggy Accident In NE Ohio

editorkevin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:53:59 +0000

I've had a couple of people send this article to me and I've been following it the last few days. Honestly, I didn't post it because it's a sad story and I just wasn't in the mood to discuss a downer. Sometimes one sees so much bad/sad news in the news that you just want to ignore it. Sad, a family of Amish children and their husband are without a wife and mother today because of a woman who was apparently driving while intoxicated. Click here to read.

Newest Amish settlement: Tripp, South Dakota

editorkevin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:38:03 +0000

According to the Young Center for Anabaptist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, the most recent state to roll out the welcome mat for the Amish is South Dakota. Tucked away in the state's far southeast corner a group of Amish families have settled near the town of Tripp. As is often the case, I was amused by the reporter's approach of the Amish. The writer seemed uneasy and appears to have just barged in on the Amish family. As a reporter/writer, I always ask an Amish family "when is a good time to talk to you? Should I come back?" It's just more polite than catching people in the middle of a busy work day and expecting them to drop everything to talk to you just because you're Amish and I'm a reporter....and you get a much better story that way....SIGH, that aside, the Mitchell, South Dakota newspaper article provided a little insight into this new settlement. Click here to read.

One of our Amishcookonline site regulars who was traveling through the area attempted to find the Tripp Amish back in August. Her email to me:

Good morning Kevin, its 7:40 a.m. here in Spearfish, SD. We went to Tripp yesterday and looked around and didn't find the Amish settlement - no signs of them, no buggy tracks or horse droppings, but I recheck the internet site that I originally saw and it says there are six families in the area. We did see a group of either Amish or Mennonites (old order) at The Falls Park in Sioux Falls on Sat. morning, they were traveling someplace west and had a driver with them. I'm really bummed that I didn't see any signs of the Tripp Amish group.

Sounds like the settlement is pretty small and just off to the west, so it would have been probably easy to miss, but I was bummed our reader didn't find them either, maybe sometime I'll make it up that way.

Um...Crisis in Amish Country?

editorkevin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:32:30 +0000

Okay, the New York Times has an article on tomorrow's FRONT PAGE entitled "Crisis in Amish Country." The content of the article itself is okay, even interesting/revealing. But the headline? It implies that there is a "crisis" roiling the Amish and in reality this is one sick man in one isolated Amish community in Missouri. The man's background is actually quite atypical of the Amish. Do sex crimes happen among the Amish? Of course! The Amish, as fallible humans, are the same as everyone else....there are sinners among them, some very bad ones....but I wouldn't say sexual crimes are running rampant among the Amish as the headline implies. In fact, the story itself says the opposite, the Amish community was quite disgusted and troubled by the sins of one of their own. As noted the article itself was interesting...but if one lone Baptist somewhere was convicted of a sex crime would there be a story saying "Baptists in Crisis." Probably not. To read the article, click here.

Celebrating 25 Years of Witness!

editorkevin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:35:55 +0000

The Harrison Ford flick "Witness" is 25 years old this month and not surprisingly for the Amish Cook's editor, the movie tops my list as my favorite movie of all time. I have probably seen the movie 20 times. Yes, the movie is pretty formulaic fiction, but it does a relatively decent job of portraying the Amish, I think. The barn-raising scene is probably, in my opinion, the most true-to-life. The movie takes me back to the time when I was first "discovering" the Amish, so in addition to holding my interest because of the "Amish angle", there is a whiff of nostalgia with it. I didn't see Witness the year it came out, I was only 13 and I really have no memory of it debuting in theaters. Harrison Ford said in a recent interview that the script really "holds up well" over time, and I agree. In addition to the barn-raising scenes, I love the depiction in town with the tourists. If you have not seen this wonderful film and like Harrison Ford movies, make a point to rent this from your video store or "Red Box." There are a handful of violent scenes in the movie, but most of it is just good, fun fiction on film. By the way, 25 years later, Harrison Ford still acts, Kelly McGillis has generally retired from the movie scene...and a young Viggo Mortensen made his first film appearance as Kelly McGillis's other "love interest." He has certaintly gone on to a good career. So, in celebration of this film's silver anniversary, anyone care to share their favorite Witness scene?

A Review of Our 20-Year Anniversary Book

editorkevin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:38:58 +0000

My stockpile of anniversary books has just come in, so those who ordered them from me directly will get theirs in the week ahead. Anyone else can order them from Amazon, I just had a limited supply of my own to sell.

Meanwhile, I ran across a nice review of our 20-year anniversary book in the St. Joseph, Michigan newspaper. Really, I'm not trying to be mean by not giving out Lovina's address to reporters (or anyone else for that matter). It's just that Lovina really values her privacy, family-life time, etc, we are lucky she takes the time to share through her column. Most Amish wouldn't even do that. If Lovina made time for everyone that wanted to stop by, she'd be greeting readers all day, instead of taking care of the "home fires." We have had readers figure out where she lived and stop by unannounced, wanting a tour of the house, wanting to meet the kids, wanting a slice of pie..Most of the readers have been perfectly friendly, but that isn't the point. I know how I would feel if someone just dropped by without warning...I mean, if it's Mom or something that is fine (most of the time) but a total stranger? If I was in the middle of something important it could be quite disruptive. But this was a fun article by a reporter who reviewed our book and sorta tried to find Lovina's place (I won't say whether she was close or not). The bakery in the photo looks so small, but the food is probably wonderful!

Update: Barbara Raber Files An Appeal

editorkevin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:55:46 +0000

People who have received their copy of the Amish Cook's Everything But the Kitchen Sink book may have read the signficant section about the Barbara Weaver murder. This was a murder that occurred in Holmes County last year that received shockingly little media coverage. Homicide is extremely rare among the Amish so I'm just surprised that the case didn't generate more coverage. The local paper, the Wooster Daily Record, barely touched upon the Amish aspect. In a nutshell Eli Weaver's Mennonite lover - Barbara Raber - shot and killed his wife (Barbara Weaver) while she slept. The Weavers had five children who were home sleeping at the time of the killings. Weaver and Raber were both found guilty and are serving jail time. Raber, however, is now appealing her conviction. For those of you who really want to dig into the meat of this case, I am posting the full appeal here.

Home-Canning Photo.....

editorkevin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:42:30 +0000

Some of you on the Amish Cook email list may have seen this photo, but those who are not: this is a shot I took of some of Lovina's home-canned foods on a recent visit. Pictured here are home-canned peaches, pears. and tomatoes. A ton of work goes into getting these foods processed and put up, but the work is worthwhile. While the rest of us are shivering through winter dealing with rubbery grocery store produce from Chile or Argentina, Lovina and her family are enjoying the literal fruits of a summer's worth of labor. Everyone pitches in, especially the girls. Home-canning is still very much a staple of an average Amish homemaker's life. In church districts, though, where gasoline-powered freezers are permitted there has been a slow shift away from the labor-intensive home-canning. Interestingly, though, as some Amish shift away from it, home-canning has enjoyed a resurgence among non-Amish as people seek a more self-sufficient lifestyle and the recession has interested people in stretching their food supply.....