by We’ve both been to Amish country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania several times, but this time we went to the Amish Farm and House for a tour. The farmhouse dates to 1805, when Isaac and Mary Evans began construction on their home. Over the next 150 years it had many owners, “but all its residents, Quakers, Mennonites, and Amish, operated the farm as a quintessential Pennsylvania German farm.” The 25-acre property had been used as farmland since 1715.
Unfortunately, today the farm shares parking space with a Target, Pet Smart, and many other stores, which rather detracts from the experience.
In 1955 a play featuring the Amish, Plain and Fancy, was a Broadway hit, and local tourism soared. A local entrepreneur opened the farm for tours so that outsiders (whom the Amish call “English,” whether they are or not) had a place to learn about the Amish way of life. The farmhouse tour was the first Amish tour in the United States.
The tour only lasts about 30 minutes, and then there are several outbuildings that can be explored on your own. Given the plain and simple way of living, you can guess that the tour isn’t especially exciting, but it was still interesting to listen to the stories and explanations.
To give ourselves a full Amish experience – and only for this reason – we stopped at Bird-in-Hand Bakery because it was rated best for whoopie pies. Whoopie pies are made of two round pieces of cake (usually chocolate, but other flavors may step in) with a sweet, creamy frosting sandwiched between them. Yes, please. They are an Amish tradition, and, in fact, there’s a good argument they were actually invented by the Amish.
Did we also get more shoofly pie? Maybe.
