Touring Holmes County, Ohio -- The Heart of Amish Country

By Debby Giusti

Join me on a research trip to the heart of Amish country! Ohio is home to more Amish than any other state. The majority of its 40,000 plain people -- ranging from the most conservative Swartzentruber to the liberal New Order Amish -- live in picturesque Holmes County. My husband and I toured the area after the Christian Fiction Readers Retreat this summer, and I wanted to share some of what we saw and learned during our trip.

Our hotel.

We stayed in Berlin (pronounced Burr΄- lyn), at the Berlin Grande Hotel and were extremely pleased with the accommodations. Our room was spacious, modern, clean and comfortable. The Berlin Farmstead Restaurant and Bakery conveniently adjoins the hotel property. Like other restaurants in the Der Dutchman chain, the Farmstead offers a delicious assortment of Amish favorites, including homemade noodles, pies and baked goods.

My Ohio grandmother always made her own noddles and served
them with mashed potatoes and  gravy. I couldn't resist ordering
 noddles, mashed potatoes and gravy with turkey
the first night we ate at the Farmstead. Lots of
carbs but so delicious! 

Due to the rising cost of land and the growing population, only 8% of the Amish in Holmes County earn their livelihood by farming. Today, tourism is the leading industry, and the Amish work in many of the stores and restaurants.

Interesting to see an Amish man doing the
grocery shopping!

One of our first stops was Walnut Creek Cheese, that sells cheese but also a wide assortment of groceries. The main market is located in the neighboring town of Walnut Creek, but a smaller branch store was situated near our hotel. Both locations sold locally grown produce and fresh meat and sausages. Many of the dry products were sold in bulk, with spices, rice, flour and such packaged in plastic bags. I especially enjoyed seeing the buggies outside with the horses tied up to the hitching posts.

Flour, rice, cornmeal, tapioca and other dried products
are packaged in plastic bags.

Horses wait patiently as their masters shop.

We visited a number of cheese factories. Heini’s Cheese Chalet provided information on how they make their cheese as well as lots of samples. Other stores of interest were Keim Lumber Company, established in 1911, and Lehman’s that sells everything an Amish home might need from houseware to hardware. Dry goods stores and quilt shops abound in the area as well.

The ladies are wrapping the various brands of cheese for
sale.

Lots of yummy samples!

The countryside was dotted with lovely homes and picturesque farms nestled in the rolling hills. Many of the Amish build “case houses” on their property that provide storage and an area to hold gatherings, such as church services or funerals. The more liberal groups have phone booths near their driveways (but never in their homes) with solar panels that charge the batteries for their answering machines.

Such a lovely farm!

A group of neighbors often rent freezer space from a non-Amish person. The freezers are located in a small building close to the main road. The more conservative groups have ice houses on their property that are insulated with twenty-four-inch Styrofoam. Once nearby ponds freeze, the ice is cut into blocks and stored for up to eight months.

Well-insulated ice houses keep ice from December to August.

Thirty to thirty-five families form a church group or district. Within a year, each member hosts one of the services, held every other Sunday. The non-worship Sundays are spent visiting friends and family. To accommodate the congregation, furniture is removed from the home and folding benches are lined up for the women and men to sit on opposite sides of the room. The bishop presides over the three-hour service, followed by a lunch prepared and served by the hosting family.

Purple Martins make their nests in the tall birdhouses. The birds
arrive in April and fly to South America in the winter.
They eat mosquitoes and other bugs so the birdhouses
are frequently seen near Amish homes.
Ada's chick brooding house, behind the birdhouses, was where her family hosted church.

We visited Ada Yoder’s home. She and her eight children cleaned their chicken brooding house for the service her family hosted. She served meat, cheese, peanut butter and bread, pickles, beets and cookies to the congregation.

The bench wagon is filled with folding benches upon which
the Amish sit during their church services.

After the service, the benches are folded and loaded into a bench wagon that's transported to the next family holding church. Ada said a box of cookies are always included so the family has a snack to enjoy as they work on preparing their home.

A rather large schoolhouse near the main road.

Approximately 250 Amish schools are in the county. Parents pay tuition to cover the cost of educating their children through the eighth grade. The schools accept no state funding and are not required to administer state testing. The children receive report cards every six weeks, and the typical school year runs from mid-August to mid-April.

Notice the wedding tent between the barn (L) and the house (R).

Amish couples court for eighteen months. Six to eight weeks prior to their wedding, the bands are announced in church and serve as an invitation to the entire church community. Weddings are held in a neighbor’s home. Often two hundred to six hundred guests attend the wedding, and the cost of feeding the guests can be as high as $5,000.

The sign reads: Welcome to the wedding of Brian and Kathryn. Parking

The wedding took place under the white tent (L).The photo was taken later
in the day, when the bride's friends, wearing light blue dresses, chat under the
blue and white tent.

Two days are needed to prepare for the gathering with an equal number of days for cleanup. Since work is not done on Sunday, weddings are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The ceremony is performed at 8 AM. A meal follows and then the bride opens gifts. The guests leave by 4 PM. Two hours later, singles of courting age arrive for an evening supper and more gift opening.

A typical navy blue bridal dress handmade by
the bride.

The bridal attendants often wear chartreuse dresses.

If you’re planning at trip to Holmes County, consider taking “A Taste of the Backroads” tour. I learned so much from LaVonne as she drove us around the county. She was raised in the area, is friends with the Amish people and understands their way of life. Her tour included a number of stops at Amish homes where we were able to visit with lovely Amish families.

An Amish man and his young daughter.

The men gather at the flea market. The young boys join
the group as well.

One of the highlights of our trip was the Wednesday Flea Market and Cattle Auction held in Walnut Creek. The town was bustling with activity. Horses and buggies lined the streets and filled the parking areas. Amish families chatted with friends as they shopped or attended the nearby cattle auction.

The cattle auction was next to the flea market.

Whether you enjoy reading Amish stories or not, Holmes County is a charming vacation destination…a step back in time and a refreshing pause from the hectic pace of our normal daily lives.

Look-alike dresses handmade by this
Amish mother.

Have you visited any Amish communities? What do you find interesting about their way of life? Are there areas of the country you would like to visit for research?

The horses graze in the nearby pasture while the Amish
families enjoy the flea market and cattle auction.

Undercover Amish, the second book in my Amish Protectors series, releases in ten days. Leave a comment to be entered in two drawings for a copy of Undercover Amish and an additional surprise gift. The coffee's hot. Grab a cup, along with some of the baked goods I ordered from a Berlin bakery and let's chat about the Amish plain folks and their way of life.

Wishing you abundant blessings,

Debby Giusti

www.DebbyGiusti.com

Undercover Amish

By Debby Giusti

After Hannah Miller’s mother is murdered and her sisters go missing, someone comes after her. Now the only way she can survive is to entrench herself in an Amish community…and rely on Lucas Grant, a former police officer who is planning to join the Amish faith, for protection. But finding refuge for Hannah— disguised as Plain at a secluded inn—pulls Lucas back into his old life. And when Lucas discovers the criminals after them may be the people who killed his partner, the mission to take them down becomes personal. With the assailants closing in, though, can Lucas stop them…and finally put his past behind him to start an Amish life with Hannah?

Order here!!