Dinner with the Amish

With my eye surgery delayed, we decided to make our trip north a bit less hectic. We stopped in Lancaster, PA for a visit with the Amish and a bit of family research. We spent a day in Columbia – visiting family gravesites. John spent the day at the Lancaster County Historical Society and unearthed some interesting family tidbits.
On Wednesday evening, we joined a group of Cajun motorhomers for an Amish dinner. We drove for what seemed like ages- passing large Amish farms, driving through towns like Blue Bell and Intercourse – and finally turned into the “Smucker” driveway.

The hostess of our evening was the widowed mother of 10 children- 6 of them still at home. We were ushered into her kitchen/dining room/living room- converted into a dining hall with tables seating 30 people. We got separated from our Cajun group and joined a table of New Jersey-ites – all from the same community in NJ and staying at a nearby B&B. They raved about the food, served family style. The dishes were passed- homemade applesauce and broccoli salad, roast beef and carrots, chicken tenders, sugar snap peas, green beans, mashed potatoes (no gravy- the men weren’t happy), and, of course, bread. It was a bit like a 1950’s suburban Sunday dinner- lots of well cooked food with absolutely no flavor.
The hostess did some table-touching- talking about leasing out their farm land and doing these family style group dinners to get by. Her unmarried daughters work at the local B&B doing house-cleaning and were busy most of the evening- serving food and cleaning plates. Her eldest son, however, sat at the head of the table and ate with the rest of the guests. Guess the feminist movement hasn’t reached the Amish community. After plates and plates of food, we were stuffed and ready to leave—but wait- there was dessert—strawberry and peanut butter pies – with huge bowls of ice cream. We did our patented early exit and headed home. Our first- and last- Amish dinner.