I3ool*s and magazines of interest to
ANDY ANDREWS
Editor
HOLMESPUN: AN INTIMATE
PORTRAIT OF AN AMISH
AND MENNONITE COMMU
NITY, by Laura Hurwitz,
with photographs by Aman
da Lumry and Loren Weng
erd. Eaglemont Press,
2002, 190 pp., $45.00.
ISBN 0-9662257-6-7
When I was a child, I was in a
dangerous bicycle accident.
It must have been some stroke
of good luck, or perhaps some
distant prayers, fortunately I suf
fered only a minor concussion.
If you have ever lived through
something so physically traumat
ic, it can be hard to describe. The
memory of falling off the bike,
headfirst, with the handlebars
smashing into my stom
ach ... the glaze of slow motion.
Special Section
Saturday,
May 10
JOIN US IN PUBLISHING THIS
EXCITING, INFORMATION-PACKED ISSUE!
Contact your Advertising Sales Rep. or call 717-721-4416 • 717-721-4415
'arming rea3ers
.ancestor
almost as if you are watching
something in a movie, not in real
life, happening to you... the
vague memories of padded and
abrupt silence, like cupping your
hands with gloves... and then
waking up in a place, lying on
the bed, holding a cold compress
to the side of your face, wonder
ing how all of a sudden you went
from riding bike to lying in bed,
in an instant
What I was told was that, lying
in a bleeding mess on the asphalt,
an Amish buggy came by, and a
Plain lady stopped to treat me, I
was told. I was told she used per
oxide on the wounds. I was told
she took good care of me until
somebody found my parents.
How I got home is still a mystery,
but apparently I could walk
Growing up in New Holland,
the Plain community was a com
mon thread, and we’ve grown up
with them here in Lancaster
County and Pennsylvania Dutch
Country all our lives. Without a
doubt, they have affected us all.
Perhaps the authors of HOL
MESPUN, with the Plain com
munities in Holmes County,
Ohio, feel the same way. The
community is interwoven
throughout. The scenes are eerily
similar in Holmes County to
many places in Lancaster Coun
ty. Even the tourist spots in a
place such as Mt. Hope, Ohio
look like they were borrowed
from Intercourse, Pa.
In the book, filled to the brim
with simple and eloquent photog
raphy, author Hurwitz provides a
history of God’s people extending
back to 1525, with the start of the
Anabaptist movement in Zurich,
Switzerland. It details some of
the story of Menno Simmons, the
Catholic priest from Holland,
and the formation of the Men
nonites and how, in 1693, a bish
op of the church, Jacob Amman,
established the Amish Mennon
ites.
What became most enjoyable
about HOLMESPUN, by far,
were the family profiles, inter
views with various family mem
bers who make up life in Holmes
County. They include the Millers,
the Schrocks, the Wengerds, the
Reims, the Bowmans, and others.
Everybody will enjoy the bam
raisings, the benefit auctions, a
peek into shop work, and scenes
on and off the farms.
Loren Wengerd was bom into
a Mennonite family in Holmes
County, He grew up in the heart
of Amish country on an exotic
animal farm and petting zoo for
handicapped children.
Amanda Lumry, bom in Belle
vue, Wash., traveled frequently
with her parents. She enjoys trav
eling the world and supporting
charitable and conservational
causes through her photography.
Order from Eaglemont Press,
PMB 741, 15600 NE Bth # B-l,
Bellevue, WA 98008, (425)
462-6618.
2003
Publication Date
May 10
Advertising Deadline
April 28
Focus On
SPRING HORSE CARE
• West Nile Virus update.
• Quality vaccination programs for
horses.
• Improving horse feed quality.
• Profiles on several horse breeds.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 12, 2003-813
ARE YOU READY TO GET
MILKED ... OR JUST GLAD
TO SEE MEI By Scot Alan
Bly. www.jerseycow
book.com, 2003, 198 pp.,
$25.
In light of today’s depressed
dairy world, a little humor can
certainly help. Looking on the
bright side of things, Bly provides
us with baskets of sunshine in
this humorous look at dairy
fanning, ARE YOU READY TO
GET MILKED!
Bly grew up on a registered
Jersey cow farm in western New
York and practices law in Her
shey, Pa. His experiences with
bringing up several prize-winning
cows, his award-winning times at
fairs, and his fond memories
growing up on the dairy are re
flected here.
And yes, the author assures us
there really was a Babe (Luv-Li
Generators Fern Babe) and
Angel (Luv-Li Golden Angel),
which he talks about with a light
ness and lore in the book.
Bly mixes whimsy, lighthear
ted despair, cowering humor
(OK, you don’t have to excuse
the puns) and fair time frolics in
MILKED. He gives Angel the
cow some loving testimony
(Chapter 15, and she was Classi
fied 95 with 5.5 percent butter
fat). You can’t help agree with
his assessment of dairy farming
in general in the title to Chapter
18, “It’s an Economist, It’s a Me
chanic, It’s a Vet, It’s a Nutri
tionist, No, It’s a Farmer!”
There are some great illustra
tions throughout.
Order from Bly at P.O. Box
341, Hershey, PA 17033, (717)
533-8315.
KENNETT SQUARE (Chester Co.) On
Monday, April 28 at 7 p.m., join Kelly Dodson
for Confessions of a Plant Addict.
The $29 lecture fee includes a dessert buffet
following the lecture. Additional information and
a printable registration form is available on
Longwood’s Website, www.longwoodgarden
s.org. To receive a course catalog, call the contin
uing education office at (610) 388-1000, ext. 516,
or write to Longwood Gardens, PO Box 501,
Kennett Square, PA 19348-0501.
Kelly Dodson has been interested in plants
since he was young. He had his own greenhouse
at age 13. He has a horticulture degree from
Washington State and has been a propagator at
the Rhododendron Species Foundation. Kelly
has traveled to exotic destinations including
Yunnan, China on seed-collecting trips. Several
plants have been named after him. He is current
ly looking to start a new nursery.
BRINGING ALLIS HOME:
Growing Up With An Allls-
Chalmers WC In the Family,
by Daniel W. Workman.
Sharodan Educational En
terprises, 2002, 115 pp.,
$12.95 U.S. plus $3 s&h,
ISBN 0-9717437-0-3
Workman apparently has a
passion for orange. He writes,
“My dad had purchased a new
WC around 1947 and from that
time on, the beautiful and unfor
gettable Persian orange or near-
Persian orange was in my system.
What a splendid and handsome
tractor that WC was. We had no
idea how much this addition to
our family would alter our lives
then and even now.”
Workman details the many
ways in many accounts ol
the passion. From escapades in
bringing a “rusty, bent, abused”
Allis-Chalmers WD from an old
bam near Ashland, Ohio, home
to the what the orange meant for
the entire family, this is an unfor
gettable book.
For all Allis-Chalmers tractor
lovers and fans of antique tractor
collecting, this book is hard to
beat.
Order from Sharodan Educa
tional Enterprises, 6529 Co. Rd.
201, Millersburg, OH 44654,
(330) 893-2083, or e-mail dwork
man@valkyrie.net.
Confessions Of A
Plant Addict