Amish in the News: Amish Pretzel Shop, Pineapple Cream Cheese Pie, Esther Schmucker, and More!

By Kevin Williams

We have a variety of Amish stories in the news today, so let's dig in.

AMISH PRETZEL SHOP:     This is interesting.   Auntie Anne's pretzels have long dominated the hand-rolled, fast-food pretzel market, but in the past few years Ben's Pretzels of Indiana has made in-roads with its brand in the Midwest.  Both Auntie Anne's and Ben's sort of draw upon Amish imagery to connect customers to their Plain roots,but the Amish Pretzel Shop just comes out and says it with their name.  The ower was raised Amish in Lanaster County, PA and learned the craft of pretzel making there. So I feel better about this shop than I would have.

The articles goes on to say, in part:

The Amish Pretzel Shop goes beyond the simple hot buttered pretzel, offering garlic Parmesan as well as cinnamon sugar flavorings. Stuffed pretzels are also available.

“We use the same pretzel dough, just shaped differently,” Lee said of the stuffed pretzels. “They’re like a hot sandwich with meats and cheeses inside.”

If anyone in Central Florida tries out this place, let us know how it is! Click here to read the whole article.

ESTHER SCHMUCKER:  Good for this reality TV star for using her platform to motivate, but I never really watched Amish Mafia or Breaking Amish, so I can't comment on her much. She was in both shows?  Anyway, if you watched either of this shows, you might find this interview with her interesting. Click here.  Some of her interview:

I was young. I had all the money I wanted and more. Finally, I could do whatever I wanted but it just didn’t feel like enough. Although I had it, I did not know how to obtain it. I wasn’t ready for it.”

Ask yourself, why it is that people have money and all the success in the world but they are still unhappy. The answer is quite simple. It is because we do not live in our purpose. Very rarely do we realize how unhappy we are because we get used to covering up and putting on a facade.

SIGH, money may not bring happiness, but I sure would like to try it out sometime to see if she is correct on that!

MILLIE'S PINEAPPLE CREAM CHEESE PIE:  I'm not sure how appealing this sounds.  I'm just not a huge pineapple fan.  Especially not covered in cream cheese and put into a pie. I think I like it best just plain and fresh.  Anyway, though, I know many of you like pineapple, so click here to catch up with Illinois Amish columnist Millie Otto and her recipe this week!

10 THINGS ABOUT THE AMISH??  This article was.....something else....Yes, there are parts of the article that were accurate, but other parts just played to stereotypes and myths about the Amish  Holy cow, check out the part about the "bundling bed."  I've been in many, many Amish homes over the years and have never, ever seen a bed like that.  Bundling is a custom in some Amish communities, but it's not something that is seen everywhere or practiced everywhere and...yeah...this article was a little over the top. And where did they get that bundling bed photo???   And I am fairly certain a section about Amish weddings, the photo was lifted from Amish365 and was a picture taken at a German Baptist wedding.

And read this part of the article:

Statistically, the Amish are some of the healthiest people in the world. They have a purely organic, homegrown diet devoid of processed food and in most cases, alcohol. They do a lot of exercise in the form of physical outdoor labor for men and manual housework for women, hence obesity is low.

They have plenty of fresh air and are not exposed to as many fumes and pollution as their contemporaries outside. They do not have much exposure to technology to avoid a sedentary lifestyle. Amish have some of the lowest incidences of cancer or respiratory diseases as a result.

That is just one of many parts of the piece that so overgeneralize.  In fact, many Amish eat fast-food, processed food,etc.  Buggy hitches at McDonalds?  Yep.

Anyway, click here to read this fiasco.

CINNAMON APPLE BREAD:   Hmmmm, what is there not to like about this recipe?   By the way, this recipe was printed in The Kokomo Tribune.  The Trib has run The Amish Cook a long, long, long time.  Kokomo is one of those scrappy midwestern rust belt cities that I enjoy visiting. Click here for the recipe.