Day 5 - Around Lancaster County, PA

Tuesday, May 05, 2015
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States
We started the day by driving through Bird In Hand to Intercourse. In junior high we all had to giggle when we heard that name. We walked around the town a bit and ended up at Kitchen Kettle Village which was a fake village filled with little shops. I kind of felt like I was in Disneyland. 



A few of the shops actually had authentic Amish homemade stuff - a quilt shop, a candle shop, a shop where they had every kind of canned relish, jams and jellies, pickles, and you knew it was fresh because you could watch the Amish women actually cooking and canning. Lots of stuff to taste, and it was all yummy. We restrained ourselves. One shop was all olive oil and vinegars - we did buy some balsamic pomegranate infusion. But most of the shops looked like we'd walked into a Cracker Barrel lobby with a lot of "authentic" stuff made in China.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




 
 









 We walked into another quilt shop that had some beautiful quilts - hand made with tiny stitches. The prices I looked at were $600-$800 for a lap quilt, which is probably about right, but while I was there an Amish woman was talking to the shopkeeper - she said they had an auction in her village the other day and quilts were going for $150-$200 and it wasn't worth making them. She also said she mostly used scraps and scrap quilts don't sell any more. How sad. The Chinese knock-off quilts aparently show up here as authenic Amish quilts sometimes in the shops too.
 
Then we decided to go for a buggy ride. Yeah maybe that was a little Disneyland too, but it was fun and interesting. We sat up front so I could ask the driver a million questions. So here is what I learned:  

Horses: Our horses were Red and Ted. You can guess which is which. The horses they use for carriages are often American Standard or mixed breeds, often former racehorses. They don't take long to get used to traffic because they are already used to noise and crowds. He just bought Ted last week at an auction so Ted was getting used to Red. Red is the lead horse, the lead is always on the left. They use draft horses or mules for the plowing. He said he prefers mules because he thinks they are smarter. They have to shoe the buggy horses every 4-6 weeks with steel shoes since they run on the roads. They rarely shoe the plow horses at all unless there's a problem with the horse's hooves.
 
 
 
 
Farming: Most of the farming is dairy cows. Most of the crops grown - alfalfa and corn - are to feed the cows and horses. There are some farms that grow some fruits and veggies for sale at farmers markets. (We saw several apple orchards.)
 
 
 
Schools: We went past a one-room school house. They are private and are located about every mile so kids can walk to school. Grades 1 to 8 go there, about 25-30 kids per school. 

Amish: There are 30,000 Amish in Lancaster County, over 60,000 in Pennsylvania. Ohio actually has a larger population than Pennsylvania. He thought Indiana was third, Wisconsin fourth. There are Amish communities in 33 states.

Modern stuff: They don't have electricity in their homes, but he pointed out an electric fence run on a 12 volt battery. He has hydraulic brakes on the buggy. He said the government makes them have lights, tail lights, turn signals and reflectors on the buggys. He said when the government makes rules that make sense to them, they try to comply.

After our buggy ride we went down the road and had lunch. Then we drove to Strasburg and walked around their downtown a bit tasted and bought some wine and ended up at the Choo Choo Train exhibit - a great big electric train exhibit. David S. - you should have been there. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 










































































 
Just down the road from there is a railroad museum with full size engines - we didn't stop but you could see a lot from the road.  And then around the corner was the Red Cabbose Motel - about 50 cabboses converted to motel rooms. What a hoot!! 
 
 

















 
I still haven't picked anyone's lilacs, but today on our buggy ride we went past huge bushes covered in blooms and I just breathed in as hard as I could. Heaven......
 
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Comments

Becky Williams
2015-05-07

One of the reasons I loved living on DC area is that I went to the Amish area three or four times a year. I would often meet a friend from Harrisburg, and twe two of us would shop hop--some of the shops are never advertised and mostly only locals know about them. BTW Lancaster AQS Quilt Show is my favorite--like it better than Paducah!

Juda
2015-05-08

I love the caboose hotel! I hope they've made the rooms up in old-time style, not just like ordinary motel rooms.

Etta
2015-05-11

Nothing coming from China can rival the beautiful stitches in an Amish quilt. Sadly the workmanship isn't valued as much as it once was.

Susie
2015-05-17

You and Armando weren't here long enough to visit Muddy Pond. It's a Mennonite community nearby. We buy honey, bread(if I'm not baking), cheeses, meats and various other things from them instead of Kroger. Next time you come, we will go there.

2025-02-08

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