Amish in the News: Peach Recipes, Amish Celebrate 10 Years near Presque Isle, Tuk-Tuk, and More!

Amish in the News

By Kevin Williams

We have a lot of fun stories and recipes today, so let's get right to it!

A buggy parked in the Zook driveway east of Presque Isle, Maine

10 YEARS IN AROOSTOOK: The Amish community near Fort Fairfield, Maine is one that I have been to twice. I remember first thinking that it was going to be so desolate, remote, and cold, but it's really not. Well, it's cold. But it's not remote.

Milk from the Zook farm.

I can drive from the heart of the Amish settlement to the Lowe's at the edge of town in less than 10 minutes and it turns out that proximity is by design, the Amish here weren't particularly seeking remote. This is an interesting article marking the 10 years anniversary of the Amish arrival in the Fort Fairfield area, interesting insight into how they picked this spot by the New Brunswick border.

Related Stories: Finding Fort Fairfield, The Amish of Fort Fairfield

TUK-TUK - Sheesh....this seems so cool, why is he getting caught up in so much red tape? This really isn't a story about the Amish, but about a Lancaster entrepreneur who wants to start giving people tours of bucolic Lancaster city in his....Tuk-Tuk....if you don't know what a Tuk-Tuk is, click here.

AMISH GUYS DON'T CALL: Looking for a new Amish romance novel? Well, maybe this will be up your alley. Click here to read more about "Amish Guys Don't Call."

MENNONITES IN CAJUN COUNTRY: These are not Plain Mennonites, at least I am fairly certain they are not (a photo with the article would have been nice), but it is an interesting article about a Mennonite church struggling to stay relevant down in the bayou. Click here for more.

HEX FEST: Wow, this is awesome...didn't know there was such a thing as "Hex Fest", have to put that on my calendar for next year! Click here to read more. Hex signs are popular among the Pennsylvania Dutch. A clarification that often bears repeating: many/most Amish consider themselves Pennsylvania Dutch, but not all Pennsylvania Dutch are Amish. Pennsylvania Dutch is a broad “umbrella term” which can include Lutheran, Moravians, Catholics, Anabaptists and other religions represented by the broad migration of Germans to Pennsylvania in the 1700s and 1800s. The term Dutch comes from the misappropriation of the term deutsch, meaning German. A college professor who studies the Pennsylvania Dutch once told me the correct term should actually be “Pennsylvania German,” a term which has come into wider use. All of this brings me to “hex signs”, colorful symbols painted on period barns found in parts of Pennsylvania. When I was younger and first studying the Amish, hex signs were sometimes associated with them. But the Amish association with hex signs historically is likely minimal.