Amish Country

Stop in for Breakfast or Lunch & The best Darn Fried Bologna Sandwich in Middle Tennessee! Or maybe you’d prefer the World Famous Amish Slaw Burger! Hey, you get free Sweet Tea with your food order.
Those are just a few items served at the Amish Country Mall. Last week the "girls" had a day out and drove down to Amish Country about 45 minutes south of us. It was a beautiful day even though warm and a bit humid. I’ve only been a little bit curious about the Amish but actually visiting their farms and seeing them driving down the road in their horse drawn buggies peaked a greater interest. It is said that the majority of the Amish here are from the Old Order Amish. They do not own or drive cars and they live without electricity or indoor plumbing. They speak a dialect of German, known as Pennsylvania Dutch. There are about 200 Amish farms in Lawrence County who began migrating here in 1944.
The Amish run their own schools and they begin at age 6 and continue until the age of 14. Then they work for their family business until the age of 21 when they are to leave home and begin to support themselves.
While driving around the Amish community, their farms were open to the public to purchase a variety of items they produce--from fruits and vegetables, to candy, furniture or porch swings. (By the way I found a beautiful one but we have no place to hang it at the time.) If they have anything to sell, they put signs up at the end of their driveway.
One interesting site was to see the clothes on the line. The reason this was interesting was because it was a line that went from the house, across the yard to the top of a telephone post (at least that’s what it looked like) with the use of a pulley. So thhttp://bl129w.blu129.mail.live.com/att/GetAttachment.aspx?tnail=1&messageId=93385b82-a20c-4784-a38a-532410e558c4&Aux=44|0|8CBF6537B87C320|ere was ALL kinds of laundry--meaning quite a bit. The little boys were dressed in their dark blue longsleeve shirts and long pants with a dutch-boy cut under a straw hat. The ones we saw at one farm were rather shy and hid from us.
In one of the pictures, you’ll see what looks like a wooden cage. I’m not sure of the name but it hooks to the back of the horse or mule and holds the corn as it is picked from the stalks. (And the sweet corn was delicious.)
We saw several mules and donkeys which must make for sturdy work animals. One type of mule was beautiful. I was told by a friend that it might be a Belgian cross. There is a picture of it on this page.
All of the farms are closed on Sunday which is the day they have church. The churches are usually held in their homes and Sunday evenings the young people gather for the Singings where they can visit with other young folks their age.
In town there was a Dutch Bakery with some delicious baked treats including Amish Friendship Bread, as well as canned jams, jellies, pickles, etc. We hope to go back real soon for some more of that sweet corn.