I am a great admirer of the Amish people. They find joy in a simpler lifestyle, they are an honor to their faith, they are quick to help and serve others and they are hard-working people.
A typical Amish farm features a herd of 60 or 70 Holstein milk cows. The Amish farmer is on call twice a day, 365 days a year to milk his cows. From 4 to 7 in the morning and again from 4 to 7 in the evening, he milks the cows. Every day of the year. He grows corn and wheat to feed his cattle, and he keeps a team of horses to plow the fields. He attends to the all the farm machinery, and his sole form of transportation is a horse and buggy. Other Amish families make furniture and build equipment, they construct houses, they bake pies and cakes, operate Amish tourist destinations and they get started at an early age.
While Nancy and I were taking a horse and buggy ride with 4 other couples, we saw three children running at full speed down a lane ahead of us. The buggy driver, an Amish gentleman named Levi, asked if we might want to stop for some lemonade. I don’t think any of us were thirsty, but when we saw the children at the gate, we knew we had to stop at this makeshift Lemonade stand. There were two girls, about 10 and 12, and a boy about 7 or 8. They asked if we wanted any homemade lemonade or cookies. The lemonade was $3 and the homemade cookies were a dollar each. The boy also had a display of Amish key chains which he had obviously made himself. We bought their lemonade and cookies and even a couple keychains. The take for the Amish children was about $50 from our party alone and there are 4 or 5 buggy rides that pass by each day. As Amish merchants, these kids are off to a really good start.
The homemade lemonade, by the way, was delicious.
