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Amish Farm Tour
Cathy Muha
I spent a day in Amish country near Hillsdale as part of a Michigan Agritours excursion. The focus of the tour was the intersection of food and spirituality.
We spent the morning in an old Amish farmhouse now owned by a non-Amish man, an engineer who purchased the home and acreage to farm and to teach youth about both farming and ecology (he has a wind turbine and solar panels and plans to go off the grid).
Our lunch was delivered to us by Maggie, a young Amish woman from across the street, where we would spend most of the afternoon. Everything we ate was grown and produced by Maggie's family, from the sausage to the milk. We dug into our lunch without pause, and it was delicious.
After lunch, we walked across the street and met the rest of Maggie's family: husband and six children, plus Maggie's mother and sister, who were helping with the cooking. The children were quiet, though they seemed quite confident. Grandma said confidence comes with being a part of the running of the farm, and the children were indeed expected to work all day, along with their parents. Play was sprinkled in, though. The oldest boy batted a whiffle ball around as he did his chores. We experienced the entire family singing happy birthday to Joseph, who was turning seven. The song was in German and was not the birthday melody we know. It was sung in rounds for quite a long time. Joseph beamed, some of us cried it was so lovely.
Maggie took us to the basement to see her canned goods – shelves and shelves groaning under the weight (though it was hard to see, with no lights). Then we went to the garden, source of all the preserving, and of course, very large. We also saw the cows in the pasture, and the turkeys and ducks in front of the barn. We learned that the entire family is up at 4:30 every morning, and Maggie and her husband aren't to bed until 10:30 at night.
We went back across the street and Maggie delivered our dinner. This time we did pause before we ate, and reflected on where our food had come from. Maggie and her family had told us that they were only a part of the food production, and that it started with God. We each had our own thoughts about that, but what we did know was that the food didn't come to us easily. We discussed how food is almost always involved when people congregate. When home-cooked, a part of the cook is in the food. I intend to be more mindful of the source of my food whenever I eat.
