Amish Adventure – Big Valley – Belleville, Pennsylvania It is easy to have a travel adventure when you are responsible for leading a “road trip” and there is no set itinerary. So Vickie and I and our daughter Heidi and her husband Trevor made the drive to Belleville Thursday the 26th. The weather cooperated and it was a beautiful autumn day and it just got better from that point forward.

By the way, Trevor was born in Tennessee so his only experience with the “Amish” culture was a trip to a Mennonite bulk store near his home in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Our one planned Big Valley stop was Yoder’s Donuts. Move over Krispy Kreme, the Amish make “killer” cream filled donuts and plenty of other types. This is a good place to insert an alert for everyone concerned with their diet and health. If you look good in spandex, make regular visits to the gym or you are associated with any type of weight loss program. Do not stop at Yoder’s. Enough said!

We turned off the main route 655 and took one of the side roads parallel to the main highway. These routes make it easier to access the large farms that dot the valley. Plus Vickie knows that most of the small Amish shops are located along these side roads. We slowed down for safety and to enjoy the scenery.

It is easy to tell you where we stopped, but very hard to describe what we saw.

The shoe shop, like most of the Amish shops, contained a highly efficient wood burning stove that keeps the room temperature at a lethal level. The shop keeper and his helper were kind, helpful and ready to serve, but not the very talkative. That is not unusual though. This shop contained a collection of shoe repair equipment that no longer exists in most places. Buy, use, discard is how most of us deal with footwear. These guys were ready to repair not just replace your shoes.

As we loaded and drove on, I was struck by the absence of horse drawn buggies on the roads. I was mid-day and usually you see some local folks going about their business. And the fields were missing the usual workers and horse drawn equipment. We solved that mystery, but more about that later.

As we drove the rollercoaster like highway past farm after farm looking for another shop, Vickie noticed a “quilts for sale” sign and we turned down the long lane to the Peachey farm. That is a very common name in the valley. We today learned that you always use an Amish person’s middle initial when you refer to a farm or shop to avoid the need to answer the question, which Peachey do you mean?

As we approached the farm, the “shop” like most in the valley was not obvious. These people don’t spend time worrying about marketing! We did see a man driving a team of horses through a nearby field applying some type of spray.

That was interesting because the horses pulled the spray equipment through the field, but a small gasoline motor powered the sprayer to keep the pressure high enough to force the liquid through the nozzles. That took all of us into a discussion of how the Amish embra

ce some technology, but totally avoid others.

Anyway, we drove up to the house, then past the barn and could not find the quilt shop. As we continued our windshield search, someone stepped out on the porch of the house so we asked about the quilts. We were directed to a small second house to our left.

As we approached the smaller house, Katie L. Peachey [notice the initial] introduced herself and agreed to take us into the “shop.” We entered the house through a small sun porch filled with end of summer flower seeds and drying plants and stepped into the kitchen. We immediately noticed the large, black wood burning stove. Did you know that your eyeballs can sweat? Man was it hot in there.

Katie L. started to move large boxes of drying sweet potatoes next to the stove. They represented the starter kit for next year’s crop. With the boxes moved, the four of us could squeeze by the stove and crowd into the small dark bedroom where the quilts were stacked on the bed. Katie L. opened the shutter or blind or something and the room filled with light. No need to feel around for the light switch!

In addition to the quilts on the bed, the room was crammed with all sort of notions hanging on the walls and stacked on the small dresser and night stand. It was my plan to capture images to show you, but the Amish prefer not to be photographed. I ask later and got permission to take a quick photo or two of the stack of quilts and some of the other notions.  

Katie L. took time to show us each of the quilts, talked about the design patterns – log house, lone star, double rings, etc. I had no clue, but I did notice some were crib sized and some large enough for a king-sized bed. They were beautiful, the patterns perfect and the colors and designs were a work of art.

We thanked Katie L. for displaying the quilts promised to return and blog about our stop. The Internet blog thing did not register with Katie L., but then again, I didn’t think it would.

As we left the building, I was wishing for a hand held Global Positioning Unit (GPS.) There is no way anyone can give directions to these Amish shops. I did carefully note the lane names, road names and State Legislative Route numbers so I could map this place. Check out the Store/Blog location.

The remainder of our road trip was all about craft shop stops, shopping at the Amish bulk stores, photographing barns - workers in the fields and finally - horse drawn buggies. Yes, we solved the missing buggy mystery and found a virtual “traffic jam.” As we crossed route 655 and followed another side road, buggies were everywhere. The missing buggy mystery was nothing more that an afternoon wedding at one farm that everyone in the valley decided to attend.

Craft Shop:

Imagine how early everyone needed to get up so they could get dressed, hitch the team, load the family and creep across the valley to the wedding location!

P.s. here are clips of some of the many buggies we saw. The videos are short, photographed from inside the car while I was driving into the sun. Sorry about that!

Buggy1: