At the beginning of this month, I jumped a plane to fulfill a longtime
dream of mine - to spend some time among the Amish.  In Lancaster
County, PA, there are literally miles and miles, acres and acres, of
perfectly manicured farms that look as if they had been painted by
some devine artist.  Many if not most of these Amish farms, do not use
electricity.  There are approximately 30,000 Amish in Lancaster, PA.
There is also a large Mennonite population.

Because I am a cook, and also like to eat, I became very fascinated in
their food and recipes.  I came home with a couple of their cookbooks.

One of the things that fascinates me, is although they obviously have
quite a bit of fresh food at their disposal, they also can and
preserve a great deal. In homes without electricity, freezing wouldn't
be an option.

In my own experience, I try to can as little as possible, because the
process usually takes large quantities of salt or sugar.  I also noted
that their food contains loads of eggs, butter, and some recipes even
call for lard.  The food is very tasty, and I would describe it as the
ultimate Pennsylvania Dutch comfort food.  It is precisely the food we
once ate in this country, but because of heart health, and cholesteral
education, have migrated away from.

The Amish seem quite healthy.  I took a long beautiful morning buggy
ride through the countryside with a delightful Amish man, who
explained many things to me about how they live.  He seemed amazed I
had no family there, had come all the way from California alone, to
take a buggy ride.

As we traveled along, he pointed out that since it was Monday, it was
washday.  Because there is no electricity, everything is line dried.
The wonderful Amish homes, often have additions on them because they
do not send their elders to care home, they bring them to live in the
family.  They have their own health care system.

All in all, I found them to be very amazing folks.  They seem to have
the simplest solution, for what the outside world makes overly
complex.  And therein may be a good part of why they seem to be absent
of stress in their community.

For those of you interested in seeing a few pictures, I have them on
line.  I also toured Gettysburg, and NYC.

Here's the link:

http://www.webstarmagic.com/lancaster_nyc/pix1.htm

The first few pictures are of Gettysburg.