wife and I took a day trip up into Holmes County Ohio, first time for me.

Went to two cheese factories (for lack of better word) and loaded up on fresh cheese and butter, went to an amazing grocery store that caters to Amish (or benefits from them) - their frozen food section wasn't anything formally packaged, just bags of locally grown fruits/vegetables like elderberries and rhubarb. Here is a picture of their meat counter. I bought a bottle of non homogenized chocolate milk among other things.



I didn't realize just how big the Amish country is up there - I'm guessing its probably 60 sq miles at least, with traditional homes and small burgs mixed in. One thing I noticed is the Amish are really big on solar panels and electric bicycles. They were riding those e-bikes all over the place

Another thing I liked was that about every 6 miles or so there was a general store or a convenience store that had a pretty big selection of everyday needs - only saw 1 dollar general but I wasn't really looking for them.

You want to talk about a safe place to live - at least from the threats of Norwegians and Messicans, then Holmes county seems like the place to be.

KFWA,
Been Down there before also and I agree as it's about an hour South of me. Very enjoyable and refreshing. Also an Hour east of me in Trumbull County is another similar berg Mesopotamia and surrounding. At our hunt camp in PA about an hour and a half farther East across the Ohio/PA line we have a smaller community of Amish that's very similar. Good Stuff.

HS 58

Lot's of Amish and Mennonites around me, and there are probably at least half a dozen of those kinds of stores within a 20 mile radius. Although they are stocked with goods that the Amish and Mennonites traditionally use, they are very dependent upon the "English" trade. I'd say the ones here probably have more English customers than Plain People, as the Amish and Mennonites like to be called. They usually have fair prices and good commodities, although you have to watch the expiration date on some things. I buy quite a lot from the one that's close to me.

We used to go to the Amish Buggy Races in that area.

Took my family down to rural south eastern MN to view the Amish Christmas light displays...

what would be the downside of living in that area?

We just started hunting in Monroe County this year and spent a 'work day' familiarizing ourselves with the area. Much higher population of Amish folk than where we 'normally' go every year. Found a small grocery stores that I much liked which looked similar to what you posted.

Nice area in general......and my time in NH is coming closer to an end every day.

Another thing they are big on is websites, I buy their products online, they are zippy shippers.

https://www.yoderscountrymarket.net/Grocery/folder/41

Yoder must be a common name or brand associated with Amish? There was some Yoder millworks and lumber in the area I was at

I could be wrong but sumtin has always made me feel like they are real friendly if you there with open wallet to buy their goods and eat at their restaurants but if you were trying to buy real estate within their community it'd be a whole nother thing

I think about 95% of the Amish are Yoders

#inbreeding

Yoder is the Goldstein of Amish

Our Amish drive F-350 and dudes wear Wranglers and pearl button rodeo shirts. Women still wear the lunch lady bonnet and don’t shave their mustaches. Pink or blue tie a porkchop around my neck to win a man. Emily Dickinson greasy hair laid down flat

Anyway we got the stores too. They got good deli meat. However it draws a legion of 400 lb dump truck guys want ONE SLICE OF EVERYTHING IN THE MEAT CASE on their fuggin Dagwood sandwiches. Takes 10 mins for that sheeit. GTF outta here.
Same lardass idiots at Publix want a slice of everything to ‘taste’ it. JFC, you want someone to feed you grapes too???
Their jams and jellies are good

Bunch of Stoltzfus around here. Yoder is them yanky ones.

I cut across Georgia south of Atlanta off I-75 to US 19 so I can have lunch at Yoder's Deitsch Haus near Montezuma.

All along that east/west stretch of rural 2 lane every business bares the Yoder name.

Once I get back into central Florida I'm greeted by the

Yoder Farms sign thats near by.

If I’m in Georgia I stop at Carroll’s sausage and meats.
Fk the amish😃

Carrolls is like a Hell for vegetarians

A lot of that kind of stuff is bought in very large bulk containers, then put in the pint and quart jars with a store label on it, leading the customer to believe that Ma Yoder herself picked those blackberries and made that jelly on her wood burning stove.

How do I know...........let's just say that an ex member of the cult revealed a lot of secrets to me.

After my wife and I toured Gettysburg battlefield for 3 days I drove over to Amish country for 3 days and looked around. It struck me how good the crops and farms looked and there were no John Deere tractors parked around. The Amish apparently are pretty good at arithmetic and know the difference between gross and net. There were huge piles of composted manure and I noticed the corn stalks were not as close together as they are where commercial fertilizer is used. The alfalfa fields were beautifully green and lush. The alfalfa is the fuel for their cars and tractors. With all the deer in Pennsylvania I wonder if the Amish take advantage of that meat source.

Most of my Mennonite neighbors came here from Pennsylvania. They were amazed at the number of deer we had here, and are crazy over deer hunting. They said there were very few left in their part of PA.

Amish Plumber I dealt with, his neighbor had two whitetail bucks in a 4-5 acre pen. Said he lets a man come out and ‘hunt’ them with a bow.
Over near Herndon.
POS

Was it Plumber John?

David

Must be his brother or son, cause it runs in the family.

Plumber John is between Hoptown and Oak Grove. Well known in the area, in more ways than one.

We have more mennonites than Amish around here. You have to dodge the horsechit in the road, and there won’t be a deer within 10 miles of where ever they throw out anchor. Other than that, they aren’t really a problem.

The only Amish guy I know runs a furniture store in town. He drives a new 3/4 ton GMC diesel. We bought an oak table and chairs from him. He delivered it by himself. The table was so heavy I could barely handle my end. The chairs are even hard to pick up. I’ve no idea how he’d planned to get it in the house himself if there hadn’t been someone here to help, but I guess he had a plan.

They make some nice furniture.

We’ll be in Amish country today in Clare, MI. Lots of Yoders around there too. I’ve never seen them on e-bikes or with solar panels I’m thinking it probably depends on the sect. A few of the stores have ride up “mini mangers” for lack of a better word for the Amish to leave their horses at.

Jay’s Sporting Goods in Clare is somewhat iconic in MI and always has Amish buying guns or other hunting/fishing gear.

I used to watch a hunting and fishing show that was sponsored by Jay's. Always thought I'd like to see that store.

It’s a fun store. It’s not quite as big as the mega flagship sized Cabela’s or Bass Pro’s but it doesn’t have the cookie cutter commercial feel either or rows of souvenir items, being local they focus on more of what is popular regionally.

Jay’s also has a milsurp store in the same parking lot, the horse station mentioned for the Amish and “Puppy Days” on the weekends in which they allow the public to park on the edges of their parking lot and sell dogs.

Definitely more of a local backwoods feel to it than the other mega sized sporting good stores.

If you’re ever up this way it’s well worth checking out as is Frank’s Great Outdoors in Linwood and Northwoods just up the road in Pinconning.

I can't figure out what is allowed and not allowed. I'm pretty sure a 3/4 GMC diesel isn't part of the Amish plan though

That is all dependent on the local bishop (I think that's what they're called). No real universal rules. One community in IN can use a skid steer to feed the livestock, but cannot plant or harvest the crops/feed with any thing that is powered by a mower. Horses towing a running gear (wagon) with a motor on it is okay. Next one over has different rules...

interesting, no wonder an outsider can't figure it out.

the restaurant we ate at had some peanut butter marshmallow creme thing on every table. Apparently that is a stable of the Amish diet.

Me too. Buggy/Bicycle Norwegians are a continual traffic hazard here and they treat their horses like schidt. I've seen them lathered up tied out on a buggy for half a day in 100 degree heat, no water in sight. I've filled a bucket and taken it to them, poor bastard sucked it dry in two minutes. Horse Hell is in Amish country.

Piss on the Mennonites, too. MF'ers. They'll buy up land, put up a [bleep] one wire electric fence, load it with cows/calves which immediately get out all over the road & surrounding land. I finally told them "Ten Dollars per cow for any that get on my place, for 5 hours or 5 minutes". Hitting them in the wallet finally got their attention. Never, ever lease them an acre- it will fill up with their inbred kin during hunting season. Their business motto is Hoo-ray for Us and Fugk You. Ferengi in checkered shirts.

Lorimer, Macksburg and Creston in south central Iowa have a large and growing Amish community. Thye buy up the marginal ground and farm small fields and raise cattle and hogs. They boys go to work for local carpenters and they have a lumber business that seems to sell top notch wood. There is also a pallet factory around Creston. They buy up Cottonwood logs and use them for the pallets.

kwg

This is my experience too. Their livestock is just a tool to them and they get used up quickly. Big on puppy mills too. Those dogs are treated like chit. I have no respect for them.

Just north of Holmes Co. is Lehmans, a hardware store in Kidron. They use to call it the non electric store. They specialize in goods for the Amish. Have wanted to go, but too far just to look at high priced pioneer tools but it's got to be a neat place.

www.lehmans.com

It's funny to see you guys talking about places I have lived near my whole life.

Meet up for a beer next time?

That one is a 15 minute drive

Raber, Yoder, troyer, miller around here.

Yeah they're real friendly when they want something from you and real azzholey if they don't.

They scam every system they can. "Oh yah, we put the wiring and plumbing in our houses in case we ever need to sell it but we don't use it."

Um. Sure. Ok.

Stinky rude scammers.

We have numerous groups of Amish and Mennonites here in central Mo. and they all seem to have different rules about means of travel. Some groups drive nice vehicles and even have bass boats... others drive plainer vehicles while others ride bicycles and then there are the horse and buggy ones. Even among the horse and buggy groups, some farm with a team of horses and others use tractors.
I talked to a fellow that lived around a horse and buggy Dutch area and he said that occasionally some would need to go to K.C. or Columbia for a doctor's appointment or the like and they would hire him to drive them... he told me he was a Yoder toter.

Northwest of Sauk Centre Minnesota is Amish country, interesting.

I heard some of the asylum seekers are trying to infiltrate Amish communities.

Didn't know they had salmon, cod, and shrimp in Amish country.

Lol.

I’m only about 25 mins outside of Lancaster PA and Stoltzfus and Martin are the majority of the Amish/Mennonite last names in our area.

I quail hunted with Brothers Stoltzfus and Martin one Thanksgiving Eve Eve.

I'm not sure this guy is a Shiite Amish.

The mennonites around here are all horse and buggy. There's a different outfit up in Kentucky who drive vehicles, but only black ones. I don't even try and understand them.

My kid stayed a couple of weeks with his buddy on his grandpa's ranch in Wyoming. He came back telling about a mennonite fella who worked on the ranch. He'd come there and stay all week, drink, smoke, drive trucks, tractors, etc., then go home and be a mennonite on the weekends.

I was telling my wife some of the comments on here

She's all put out with the Amish now, especially the Maw Yoder buying jelly in bulk

There's a Yoder farm/market outfit over towards Sparta. Yoder must be Amish for WalMart or something.

Went to an Amish store in Ohio, Lehman's. I think.
They have everything for Amish and country folks.
A huge livestock auction was on across the street.

There is a Yoder's restaurant and market in Sarasota, Fl., lots of Amish and Mennonite 's winter there.

Ditto in spades on the way they treat their animals. Makes one want to hook their ass to one of those buggies and then leave them in the heat.

In all fairness, I've known some good examples of Amish and Mennonites. I went to school with twin Mennonite girls and about 7th Grade I was smitten with the prettiest one.. They are, like me, old and married now and they are still fine ladies. Their brother is a complete weasel to the point his own kind rejects him.

One of the best farriers I ever had was a horse & buggy, non driving Amish. I had to go pick him up and take him back, but he was worth the trouble. He'd have me stop at the stab & grab on the way home so he could buy a half gallon of cheap whiskey. He was quite the character and I miss him. He got laid up in a horse wreck and had to quit trimming.

One word.

Sweet Lebanon bologna.


-#woooo-weeeee

If it is a device that will somehow help them make money, then the Lord approves.

That's pretty much it.

There's quite a few around me, I'm about a hour north of Clare. Most horse and buggy, or peddle bikes. They don't follow game laws, and are big hunters and use hi powered rifles, even in shotgun only areas!

there used to be a restaurant called the Der Dutchman. i had coffee there for 25 years.

Visit Holmes and surrounding area often. Lots to see on “the strip”. Real deal is off the beaten path. Lots of individuals on the back roads who have a simple shingle hung on the road.

If you return spend a day driving around. Couple of good gun/sporting stores, leather works, furniture, hardware and lumber shops.

In general, Mt. Hope, Charm, and Farmerstown come to mind. Often though we just explore and enjoy the scenery. Mt Hope has a dandy auction on Wednesdays I think. Livestock, produce etc…. . Also a Lehman’s store. Charm has Kiem Lumber, a leather goods store and a small sporting goods store. Farmerstown has a great furniture store and some large antique shops. Just a few I can think of.

Close by is Massillon OH home of Dawson’s. Small shop that caters to shotgunners and reloading. Regular stop for me.

Whole area is full of things to do, see and buy.

Ahh the rust belt....a complete s hithole.

I went thru Charm, it was a pleasant little area

Aint a boomer been born that can resist gen-you-ine Amish crafted oak furniture. Visions of Levi working in the barn by candle light with plane and chisel.




Spoiler alert - the electricity can't come from the grid...diesel generator is A-Okay. They divy up product lines amongst the community...this shop does dining sets. Next over turns out bedroom sets. Next one over the roll top desk pimp daddy. All traditional like, complete with the scream of jointers, planers, cabinet saws and pneumatic sanders.

In my Area Amish to not drive motor vehicles. Mennonites are different, I have seen Horse & Buggy Mennonites, Black Car Mennonites, as well as Pastel Car Mennonites. Amish and Mennonites can be hard to tell apart. In my area Amish do not have electricity in the home, Mennonites do.

We have lots of Amish saw mills in my area, they hire locals to drive the Loaders, etc. The cabinet maker has a diesel stationary engine running a drive shaft that runs the length of his shop under the floor. All the wood working equipment runs off belts. The cabinet shop is also the Buggy Shop. He ran me through the process used to make wheels a while back. That was interesting. They order things like the Hubs and Spokes from other shops.

I work three days a week at an old time hardware store. Most of the Amish in the area trade with us. We still sell nails by the pound, weighed on the same scales since June 12 1940 when the store opened. They hire a driver to take them to town. Businesses in the small town closer to where they live have places to tie up the horses.

All of them that I am around are good people.

Bob R

I don’t care if they’re made with laser printers. The furniture I bought there beats the hell out of the Chinese crap furniture plaza down the road.

I'm on the local volunteer fire department board, and most of our firefighters are Mennonites and ex-Mennonites. In this area there at least 4 different "tribes" of them, and one bunch has a bishop who tells them that they can't be a firefighter. Just about every Mennonite I've met loves to gossip and it's a hoot listening to them talk about the different groups and how stupid the rules are. In that respect, they are no different from anyone else.

[/quote]
Bunch of Stoltzfus around here. Yoder is them yanky ones.[/quote]

Horse and druggies

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2-amish-arrested-for-drug-deal/

My deer processor and butcher is a Mennonite. One of the nicest people you could ever meet. His deer processing is excellent and not hurtful to your wallet. His beef is from his own farm and the taste and freshness is excellent. To boot, when he found out my wife was diagnosed with cancer he offered to supply me with all the deer meat I needed for that year due to me not hunting. Very king of him! In this world there aren't many people who would offer to do anything like that. Clay Godfrey is one of those people. Salt of the earth.

My buddy In Pa (near Lancaster) told me the Amish buy up all the day old bread from local commercial bakery & repackage as " Amish made" to sell to tourists..

hard to imagine subscribing to that way of life and end up still being a schitbird.

Humans are humans. No matter their culture there will always be a few turds

I know this for a fact........one of the Amish on my mail route would get five gallon buckets of honey delivered to him by me. He would then repackage it to pint and quart jars and resell it, advertising it as local honey, which in fact it was not.

The story I like is, when Amish dad thinks the boys are at the bar too long, he takes the horses home, but not the buggy.

I bet those Amish eat every scrap of what they shoot. The "English" often take theirs to Hunters For The Hungry which may be slightly better than what a lot of hunters do. They put it in the freezer and after a year or two haul it to a dumpster.

I've been called several times about ducks being dumpstered by hunters on the way home. Which would be legal if they were tagged. Waterfowl must be retrieved if possible but you can throw it away.

Is it true that the Amish gene pool is so shallow that they will pay you to knock up one of their women folk?

I live here in Amish country and like everywhere else you have good ones and bad ones. They do try and hide behind the Bible when it comes to the "Outsiders", tourists. They have a drug problem with the younger ones just like the rest of the country. Give them a financial opportunity and they will skin you with the best of them, especially in the timber business. Their so called Amish Cooking at the many restaurants is a joke. Besides maybe some homemade pies and cookies their potatoes, beans and all the rest come out of cans like all the other restaurants you have ever eaten at. Mennonites drive cars, have electricity and all the modern conveniences as the rest of us. The Old Order Amish travel in buggies or someone takes them in their car. There are retired guys I know that make a business out of driving the Amish around. They get a nine passenger van, we call them Yoder Toters. They won't drive a car, but will drive to town on a new John Deere tractor pulling a wagon with kids and groceries in it. And you're right the electric bicycles are everywhere. They will come to put a roof on your house and then ask if you will let them hunt your place, don't do it. Not all, but a lot are game hogs. They will shoot anything that comes by during deer season and God forbid if you let them fish your pond. Most love their guns and hunting and if you go to one of the local gun auctions (like the ones they hold in Mount Hope) be prepared to pay through the nose if there is something you are interested in. One of the things that is REALLY irritating, at least to me, is what was already mentioned and that is the puppy mills. Criminal !! They also raise deer. We call them High Fence Farms. Because of the Cronic Wasting Disease I think all of the deer raising outfits have been shut down. They're not all bad I have some Amish friends and they are good people and will help you if you ask. Been to a couple of funerals. That's interesting. But if there is money to be made the Amish will be involved in it. There is also something that a lot of people don't know and that is they have a lot of physical issues that the normal public will never see or hear of, and I suspect it's from marrying cousins and such from the past. A bunch of the unfortunate family members are kept indoors, you will never see them. Holmes County is saturated, so they are moving out into the surrounding counties and the price of real-estate is skyrocketing. You will see a lot of one room school houses around here. The kids walk to school and normally go to the eighth grade and then go to work. Farming, maybe work in a furniture shop or the construction business. The unemployment rate is nearly zero. There is one outstanding trait here among the Amish, for the most part there is hardly any crime. Names were mentioned. Here are some popular ones. Troyer, Hershberger, Miller, Yoder, Schwartzentruber and Schrock. The buggies are a pain in the butt and dangerous on the roads, but they are entitled to use them like the rest of us. It is surprising that more are not involved in accidents then there are. Alot of them get passed on curves and blind hills. Even with all that's been said I would rather live here with the Amish than places I've read about in other parts of this country, especially the larger cities. BCM

Not really.

You aren't going to be buying any real estate they want.
Not unless you are a City F-ck with stupid money.
When they want something, they buy it.
Done, over, sign the papers.

Land, stuff at auctions, whatever.


A Mennonite friend was telling us about coming here from Hagerstown to
look at his farm. 20 years ago. He liked it and bought it. Somehow asking price was mentioned, and i ask how they negotiated so fast.

"We don't negotiate, it's not right to ask a man to sell his farm for less than
he thinks it's worth".

Seth, is a good man and a straight shooter.
That is not the case with every Plain Person. They are people just like any group.
Some are as crooked a a dog's hind leg.



Living among them?

Money flows through a one way valve.
They build businesses that rely on English money.
Sometimes almost exclusively.

They put forth great effort to not allow that money back into English hands.
With the exception of Yoder Toters (folks who drive them) there aren't many
places where they spen money outside their communities. Basically, only where they absolutely have to.


Oh yeah!

Going around a blind 40 mph turn in a semi at 55 and finding and Amish Freightliner
in your lane. Or, a pack of them on bikes.
Unlike English bikers, they do yield.


On more thing is finding yourself in close quarters in the summer.
It can be pungent.

I'm told you only cheat them once.

No.

Rumor is if you don't knock up your new wife fast enough, the Bishop comes
by to help you out. True, false, or Ordnung specific.



As to the gene pool?



https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21168-maple-syrup-urine-disease


Maple Syrup Disease is enough of a problem that
Pennsylvania requires all infants to be tested for it.
Even though the Amish/Mennonites are about the only place it is found.

What makes an Amish girl happy?






























Two men-a-night.

there was a harness shop between Berlin and Millersburg with no electricity. he had several 20lb propane tanks with lantern posts on them.
for power there was an engine driving a couple shafts under the building and belts came up through the floor to power sewing machines and riveters.

solar is everywhere now.

I admire their work ethic, and the way they pass it on to their children, even though it means having kids do dangerous jobs around the farm. I also appreciate their ingenuity, and the way they figure out how to make something work, given the restrictions of their particular religion. I have seen them buy a few acres of land that no one else wanted, and turn into a beautiful and productive homestead. They will be the first to come and help a neighbor out after a bad storm or other disaster. I think it's great that you see no welfare or living off the government in their communities...........for the most part, although some of them are on Medicaid, due to a bad medical condition.


On the flip side, they have perfected many different ways to fool and rip off us English. They love to project an image that unsuspecting and unknowing English will eat up and they can get their money. It burns me up to see how they take advantage of the system, a system that the rest of us have to pay to use...............case in point, the highways and roads. While the non Amish and Mennonites have to have drivers licenses, insurance, and pay a number of taxes and fees in order to operate a vehicle on the highway, they basically pay nothing to use it for their horse and buggy, tractor, and bicycles. Yet, look at a road where horses with steel horseshoes, and tractors with steel wheels have run up and down a paved road, and you'll see how much they damage it. That is perhaps my major gripe with them.