Amish in the News: Amish and Ben Carson; Amish Cheese, Mennonite Cheese, Amish Recipes and More!

By Kevin Williams

Okay, we have a slate of interesting stories and recipes in this week's Amish in the News!

THE AMISH AND BEN CARSON:   What does one Amish person think of Presidential candidate Ben Carson?  Click here to find out.  As an aside, the Amish generally steer clear of Presidential politics.  I'd venture to guess this Plain person is (well, the article also states this) is from the Amish-Mennonite tradition.  This group tends to have a more evangelical bent, so I'm not surprised there's some affection for that particular candidate.

MILLIE'S BANANA WAFFLE WHOOPIE PIES:  Catch up on Amish columnist Millie Otto's life this past week and get a recipe for Banana Waffle Whoopie Pies.  Ugh, that almost sounds too rich for my taste and that is saying something! Click here for the column and recipe.

OHIO AMISH CHEDDAR CHAMP!  An award-winning Amish-made cheddar cheese?  Wow, where do I get some??  As an aside, I love cheese.  Really, I could just eat cheese all day long, cheese of any type.....not a big fan of provolone, but beyond that, I'm a certified cheese fanatic.  Click here to read about this Amish cheese co-op in Ohio.  Now, a story about more cheese....

AWARD-WINNING MENNONITE GOAT CHEESE:   This Mennonite woman's goat cheese is winning accolades world-wide and is making waves enough to catch the attention of the New York Times.  As an aside,  I'd be interested to know more about this family or the Mennonite community.  The name doesn't strike me as typical, so perhaps they are converts?  No big deal, just curious on my part....Click here to read the story.

Russians visit Rich Hill, Missouri Mennonites. This is a buggy owned by one of the Rich Hill Mennonites, a very conservative group.

VISITING RUSSIANS -  What first caught my attention about this was that a Russian farming delegation was visiting the rural Mennonite community of Rich Hill, Missouri as part of an agriculture exchange.  I've written about Rich Hill here before and I thought that it was interesting but I ended up getting a laugh out of another part of the piece, the Russians visited a non-Mennonite farm nearby but the owners weren't home so they left a John Deere tractor in the yard for them to see. Sheesh, you'd think these people are coming from half across the world that they could have made sure someone was home!  Click here to read more.

EDITOR'S PICK - AMISH CHOCOLATE CHIP PUDDING COOKIES - YUM! - The name speaks for themselves, not much more I can add! Click here for the recipe.