822-L«ncaster Fanning, Saturday, August 13 1994
Woman Braids
GAIL STROCK
BELLEVILLE (Mifflin Co.)
“I make 200 hats a year,” the
woman says with a cheerful grin.
Three steps up from where I
stand is an open wooden porch
with rocking chairs, benches, and
a cupboard covered with baked
goods. Her boot-length dress is
royal blue, cap pure white, shoes
black and heavy, and grin wide.
My father’s childhood friend sent
us here to leant how the Old Order
Amish of Mifflin County make
their straw hats.
But here on a back road home
stead, this self-sufficient order of
people blend ih with the self
sufficiency of nature, and I can’t
get over the overwhelming quiet.
No humming refrigerator or com
puter. No phone ringing. No TV.
No machines. No stress of having
to be somewhere at a certain time
and always running late. Just an
occasional truck whooshing by on
the gravel road just above this
white wood-frame house, fenced
to keep the chickens in and who
ever out.
The sounds we do hear are the
welcome sounds of nature that are
easy on the ears. Michael Jordon
Amish hats are made of long strands of woven wheat
straw sewn together.
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Friday, Aug. 19,1994
Noah & Cory Yoder Farm,
RR #2 Johnson Mills Road,
Lewisburg, PA
717-524-7965
Friday, Aug. 26,1994
Nathan Burkholder Farm,
10286 Mercersburg Road,
Mcrcersburg, PA
717-728-2587
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Middleburg, PA 17842 Clear Spring, MD 21722
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Don R. Weaver Melvin Stoltzfus Paul Weaver
245 White Oak Rd. 370 Faggs Manor Rd. 401 Woleber Rd.
New Holland, PA 17557 Cochranville, PA 19330 Myerstown, PA 17067
717-354-4398 215-860-9627 717-933-4459
may have the glitz of nothin’ but
net, but here there’s nothin’ in this
country air but peacefulness.
Or so I thought
4 T learned to make hats with
rice straw, but now I can work
with wheat. It’s tougher, but goes
easier through the sewing
machine,” Miriam says of the long
plaited strips she overlaps and
machine sews in a circle to form
the hats.
Miriam orders rice straw by the
box. Each box holds 12 bundles
and she goes through one box in
two months. She gathers the wheat
straw in from the fields the begin
ning of July when the wheat is
ripe. Although the wheat straw
hats are slightly darker than the
rice ones, both are a natural gol
den color.
I ask how much wheat she
gathers.
“Oh!” she laughs, pleased with
the labor. “By the wagon full!”
After gathering the longest
stems, Miriam removes the wheat
heads and prepares the stems.
“I strip off what we call the
pants (an outer thin leaf-like
sheath) and you end up with a hol
low tube. I soak it for an hour or
Monday, Aug. 22,1994
Paul Weaver Farm
401 Woleber Rd.
Myerstown, PA 17067
717-933-4459
'hiesday, Aug. 23,1994
Melvin Stoltzfus Farm
370 Faggs Manor Rd
Cochranville, PA 19330
215-869-9627
All Field Days
Start at
1:00 P.M.
Homestead Nutrition, Inc.
7-Strand Straw Into Hats
two and braid it wet” She can
braid four years of straw in one
hour and it takes 16 - 17 yards to
make a wide-brimmed men’s
straw hat.
Miriam says she will wet some
straw and show us how she plaits
it. Soon we hear the hand pump
creaking in the kitchen as she
dampens the straw.
Working with the dampened,
pliable straw, Miriam starts with
seven straws side by side. She
works the single strands in the
over-under fashion of braiding.
Beginning with the outside strand.
Thursday, Aug. 25,1994
Weaver Homestead Farm, Don
& Nelson Weaver,
245 While Oak Road,
New Holland, PA 17557
Don 717-354-4398
Nelson 717-354-9152
Wednesday, Sept. 21,
1994
Enos Hoover Farm,
317 Gmt Mill Road,
New Holland, PA 17557
717-354-5415
Strips of wheat straw and bundles of rice straw are carefully woven Into hats.
she passes the strand over, under,
over, under (four times), stopping
before reaching the other side.
Then she starts with the opposite
outside strand, passing it four
times over and under towards the
middle. For a thinner band, use
five strands. (I practiced with
seven strands of baler twine).
Most men buy a new straw hat
every year. Miriam makes all sizes
of men’s hats, each with a thin
white ribbon tacked on where
brim meets crown. Miriam some
times uses varnish to stiffen the
brim on the men’s hats. The crown
of her women’s hats are only
about one inch high, but the brim
is wider. The sides bend down
when the 3/4 inch black ribbon is
tied under the chin.
‘This is what I did yesterday,”
she says with pride, lifting a loaf
of homemade bread and pointing
to the sticky buns and half moon
pies.
It’s then that I realize there’s
more in the air out here than
nature’s peace. There’s pride. Not
the vanity kind. The pride that
finds pleasures in accomplishment
and in work well done.