The Amish Cook from Oasis Newsfeatures

Okay, the New York Times has an article on tomorrow's FRONT PAGE entitled "Crisis in Amish Country."   The content of the article itself is okay, even interesting/revealing.  But the headline?  It implies that there is a "crisis" roiling the Amish and in reality this is one sick man in one isolated Amish community in Missouri.  The man's background is actually quite atypical of the Amish.  Do sex crimes happen among the Amish?  Of course!  The Amish, as fallible humans, are the same as everyone else....there are sinners among them, some very bad ones....but I wouldn't say sexual crimes are running rampant among the Amish as the headline implies.  In fact, the story itself says the opposite, the Amish community was quite disgusted and troubled by the sins of one of their own.  As noted the article itself was interesting...but if one lone Baptist somewhere was convicted of a sex crime would there be a story saying "Baptists in Crisis."  Probably not.  To read the article, click here.

The Harrison Ford flick "Witness" is 25 years old this month and not surprisingly for the Amish Cook's editor, the movie tops my list as my favorite movie of all time.  I have probably seen the movie 20 times.  Yes, the movie is pretty formulaic fiction, but it does a relatively decent job of portraying the Amish, I think.  The barn-raising scene is probably, in my opinion, the most true-to-life.  The movie takes me back to the time when I was first "discovering" the Amish, so in addition to holding my interest because of the "Amish angle", there is a whiff of nostalgia with it.  I didn't see Witness the year it came out, I was only 13 and I really have no memory of it debuting in theaters.  Harrison Ford said in a recent interview that the script really "holds up well" over time, and I agree.  In addition to the barn-raising scenes, I love the depiction in town with the tourists.  If you have not seen this wonderful film and like Harrison Ford movies, make a point to rent this from your video store or "Red Box."  There are a handful of violent scenes in the movie, but most of it is just good, fun fiction on film.  By the way, 25 years later, Harrison Ford still acts, Kelly McGillis has generally retired from the movie scene...and a young Viggo Mortensen made his first film appearance as Kelly McGillis's other "love interest."  He has certaintly gone on to a good career.  So, in celebration of this film's silver anniversary, anyone care to share their favorite Witness scene?

My stockpile of anniversary books has just come in, so those who ordered them from me directly will get theirs in the week ahead.  Anyone else can order them from Amazon, I just had a limited supply of my own to sell.

Meanwhile, I ran across a nice review of our 20-year anniversary book in the St. Joseph, Michigan newspaper. Really, I'm not trying to be mean by not giving out Lovina's address to reporters (or anyone else for that matter).  It's just that Lovina really values her privacy, family-life time, etc, we are lucky she takes the time to share through her column.  Most Amish wouldn't even do that.  If Lovina made time for everyone that wanted to stop by, she'd be greeting readers all day, instead of taking care of the "home fires."  We have had readers figure out where she lived and stop by unannounced, wanting a tour of the house, wanting to meet the kids, wanting a slice of pie..Most of the readers have been perfectly friendly, but that isn't the point. I know how I would feel if someone just dropped by without warning...I mean, if it's Mom or something that is fine (most of the time) but a total stranger?  If I was in the middle of something important it could be quite disruptive.   But this was a fun article by a reporter who reviewed our book and sorta tried to find Lovina's place (I won't say whether she was close or not).  The bakery in the photo looks so small, but the food is probably wonderful!

People who have received their copy of the Amish Cook's Everything But the Kitchen Sink book may have read the signficant section about the Barbara Weaver murder.  This was a murder that occurred in Holmes County last year that received shockingly little media coverage.  Homicide is extremely rare among the Amish so I'm just surprised that the case didn't generate more coverage.  The local paper, the Wooster Daily Record, barely touched upon the Amish aspect.  In a nutshell Eli Weaver's Mennonite lover - Barbara Raber - shot and killed his wife (Barbara Weaver) while she slept.  The Weavers had five children who were home sleeping at the time of the killings.  Weaver and Raber were both found guilty and are serving jail time. Raber, however, is now appealing her conviction. For those of you who really want to dig into the meat of this case, I am posting the full appeal here.

Some of you on the Amish Cook email list may have seen this photo, but those who are not:  this is a shot I took of some of Lovina's home-canned foods on a recent visit.  Pictured here are home-canned peaches, pears. and tomatoes.  A ton of work goes into getting these foods processed and put up, but the work is worthwhile.  While the rest of us are shivering through winter dealing with rubbery grocery store produce from Chile or Argentina, Lovina and her family are enjoying the literal fruits of a summer's worth of labor.  Everyone pitches in, especially the girls.  Home-canning is still very much a staple of an average Amish homemaker's life.  In church districts, though, where gasoline-powered freezers are permitted there has been a slow shift away from the labor-intensive home-canning.  Interestingly, though, as some Amish shift away from it, home-canning has enjoyed a resurgence among non-Amish as people seek a more self-sufficient lifestyle and the recession has interested people in stretching their food supply.....