Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Amish Country


Journal entry Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

This was outside a grocery store
This picture is blurry but that's just as well
since they don't want their faces in pictures.
We headed toward Lancaster and even before we got there we saw Amish and Mennonite farmers. It was really cool to get glimpses of them out working naturally in places that weren’t for tourists. We saw one man and his daughter on a horse-pulled plow, and then a young girl with a delighted grin trotting down the road in a tiny surrey. I saw a line of towels hanging on a line that were arranged in order of size, with the bath towels slowly shrinking to washcloths. It would have made a cool photo.

 
In Lancaster we went to a farm that had been turned into a tourist place. We took a tour where they showed us all the rooms and talked about the Amish way of life. Outside there were lots of out buildings with a kitchen for cooking in hot weather so as not to heat the house, barns, and big dryers.

This one-room schoolhouse had a quilt rack in the front

In the woodworking shop there was a whittler and wood burner who had some of his work on display. He’d made a rooster about twice the size of the head of a pin, complete with a feathery tail.

I collect key chains and have about 30 of them at home. I was delighted to have him make me a specialized key chain, with whatever designs I asked for on both sides. The bird is in honor of me, of course, but I had him make it a Cardinal because we saw one hanging around the farm. So bright and pretty! We don’t have them where I live.



Then we stopped at Hershey factory. We went on a tour of a simulation of the factory with silly, singing cows. It had little carts that went on a continuous loop, each with their own speakers, so you could climb on at any time. I hadn’t realized quite how much work and how many steps it takes to get from the cocoa beans to the chocolate.

Cocoa beans


Cocoa butter
 Check back next Friday for the next installment!



6 comments:

Joanne Sher said...

Looking forward to reading more! Sounds like a lovely trip so far!

Rita Garcia said...

Love the picture of you sitting in the school room. Thanks for interesting post. Hugs!

. said...

It's so cool to learn how others live and in different invironments and religions. Looks like the whole family had a great trip. :)

Laury said...

You don't have cardinals? How sad is that! They are our state bird! Very nice pictures, Amy! Thanks for sharing:) <3

Douglas said...

So, how much chocolate did you get to go? Was it mostly the standard hershey bar kind, or did they have some special kinds?

Sparrow said...

We have other colorful birds like Blue Jays and Goldfinches (though I don't see the latter often), but yeah, no cardinals.

Doug, we got a little from Hershey and they had lots of unusual and yummy-looking iced drinks and ice cream, so we each tried one. But they didn't have a whole lot of unusual candies or candy bars. But they started adding MSG (under the label of "natural flavors") a couple years ago, so their chocolate makes me sick now. Bummer.