A Day With the Amish

Yesterday, we were on the road by 6:00am to drive into the mountains to visit an Amish farmer's market, their first of the season.  The scenery was beautiful.

The farms are all awake with activity.

Fields are plowed, seeded and rows are covered.

We saw farmer's working their fields by hand.

I never get tired of seeing the fields come alive after the long winter.
 

A typical Amish farmhouse.

We saw animal babies everywhere and stopped to talk to quite a few.  There were lambs, goats, fouls and calves, all newly born and standing close to their mama's.

We encountered some traffic along the way.

We were headed to the same place.

Ahhhh...market season has begun.

Look at the little Amish girl.  How cute!

Uh oh!!!

There was a flea market happening at the same time.  I love these because you never know what you might see.  There was one table selling old Griswold cast iron skillets, my favorite.
 

Click any pic to enlarge.

There were so many plants that I was intimidated and came home without any.  The fact that my car was pretty far away and I had not brought a cart influenced me greatly.

Here's the guy I passed on the road.

Painted saw blades.
 

The Amish never disappoint when it comes to baked goods.  There were tables groaning with gobs, all sorts of bread, doughnuts, cakes, cookies and just about as many cinnamon buns as I've ever seen in one place.

I didn't realize until I was home and sorting through my photos but I sure could use that big wooden saw.

This guy sells every kind of axe head you could want and he will fit it with a custom made handle.

Anyone need a two man saw?

This guy was selling BULLSHIT!

One of my goals was to find good local maple syrup and I did.  About 5 years ago, I went a bit crazy at a maple festival and bought 6 gallon jugs of it.  Everyone thought I was crazy but those were the days I was cooking for the after school kids and I made them a lot of pancakes and served them with the wonderful syrup.  I went through quite a bit knowing I could replace my supply at the yearly festival.  Then covid hit.  I missed two maple seasons and was down to my last jug.  Now I can relax again. Everyone else was worried about toilet paper as I had maple syrup anxiety.  It figures if you think about it.

This is the sweet little lady that sold it to me.

I'll post more pics tomorrow.  It felt a bit strange but very good to be back to doing things we haven't done in quite some time.  Notice...no masks.  The outdoor mask mandate has been dropped and I don't think I saw one mask at the market.  The Amish, of course, never wore masks and would never be vaccinated. We are fully vaccinated and were outside so we felt safe.