The Sunday Drive

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beauty, calmness, conservative Mennonites, country side, Dams, farms, fresh water trout, machine shop, Mennonites, Old Barn, Old Mill, Old Order Mennonites, park like setting, pastoral beauty pastural, Plain People, pond, rushing water, Spring, Spring Creek, Spring Creek Fabrics, Spring Water, spring water raised trout, Sunday Drives, The Sunday Drive, VA, waterfall, waterfalls

Do you remember decades ago as I do (yes decades ago) when you used to pile in the car and take the Sunday drive into the country (gas was CHEAP) just to explore the countryside and see where all those little back roads led to?

Today with sprawling cities it does mean that you must drive miles and miles just to find the country, well I am fortunate in that the countryside surrounds me. Though there is not much money these day due to the price of gas and cost of living, so the trips are not so spontaneous, however sometimes you don’t have to look much further than your own back yard.

Sometimes in this fast paced hustle and bustle environment that we all live in we become blinded to the fact that the beauty of nature is all about us, we just have to take time to see it. This is one thing that being an Old Order Mennonite taught me years ago, do you know how much more beauty you can see traveling in a buggy at 10 miles an hour vs. 55/65 miles per hour? Your senses take in so much more. While yes I do drive a car these days, I still think like I am driving a horse and buggy, especially when I am on country roads. Just take time to see the beauty around you, :”Let Yourself Become part of the Journey” rather than concentrating on the destination!

This past weekend, I had company from Williamsburg, VA , every time they come up they want to drive into Old Order country, and tell me “Take Us Places that we have not seen before” I will share some pictures in this post with the calm beauty of one farm during our early morning drive,

This is located in the small village of Spring Creek, Virginia, the country road divides the farm in half, calm and peaceful beauty. Pictures are worth a thousand words indeed.

This is the farm of Anthony Zimmerman

On the one side of the road you will find the Spring Water raised fresh water trout ponds, the home, his wife’s Fabric Shop “Spring Creek Fabrics” and beside that Anthony’s Machine shop, all of it looks out on this serene pastoral beauty, the actual spring is up the road from the farm,  near the house and shops you look across the road at this calm and peaceful setting.

If you find yourself in the area, and it is a Sunday, please be respectful, as the the Zimmerman’s are conservative Mennonites, their shops are NOT open on Sundays nor do they transact or talk about business on Sundays.

The village of Spring Creek is located approximately 4 miles west of the towns of Dayton and Bridgewater, Virginia

Note: In addition to the Fabric Shop, Machine Shop, Anthony does sell his Spring water raised trout, for 3.00 each and will clean them for and additional 25 cents each.

Related post: Living Among the Plain People-The Amish and The Mennonites

     

       

     

Living Among the Plain People-Separate from the World, Yet Part of the World- The Amish and the Mennonites

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Choices, curiosity, God Fearing, Life, Living, Living Among the Plain People, Mennonite-Amish, oddity, Old Order, Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonites, Plain, Plain People, Separate from the World, technology, Ways of Life

I know many of you reading this post may not have ever had any contact with the Old Order Amish or Mennonites, to you they are viewed as an oddity, curiosity or even in some places as a cult.

People who dare to be different in one way or another are often viewed this way, especially people who do not conform to society, people who do not choose to adopt technology when it is all around us in our everyday lives. People who choose to live off grid, or separate themselves from society period..

   The life of the the Old Order Mennonites and Amish is just that different from our own, yet even though they seem worlds apart from the way most of us live in todays modern high speed world of vastly modern and ever growing technology theses people live quiet simple lives and they are right here among us.

   Some people say that are unfriendly and aloof to them, however I think as far as the Old Order Mennonite colony here in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, they tend to be the warmest group of people, friendliest that you would want to have dealing with. They don’t care if your beliefs are the same as theirs, if you show up in their shops or stores with shorts on, or women with cut hair, your ways are different from theirs, and they accept that.

I have found most people that say these things or make these assumptions about Mennonites and Amish peoples have never tried to approach them or engage them in conversation.

   The are normal people like you and I , that happen to dress differently, not drive automobiles, and live a different way of life. They are to be admired for their tenacity in todays world to cling to the old ways, and try to live a God Fearing life in the modern world.

There are many who have shops of their own, buggy shops, (you need a car, you go to a car dealer, they need a buggy you go to the buggy shop) harness makers, bonnet makers, covering makers, fabric shops, bulk food shops. In many ways they are just like everyone else, just dare to be different.

I will write more each week to be posted on Sundays.

Pictures are of both Amish and Mennonites.

Related Posts you may like “The Sunday Drive“

Tomato Gravy

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bacon, bacon drippings, breakfast, breakfast recipe, butter, colonies, cornstarch, drippings, eggs, gravies, gravy, Mennonite-Amish, Old Order Mennonites, recipes, Roux, stewed tomatoes, sugar, Sunday Recipes, thickening, Tomato Gravy, tomatoes, V-8 juice

Over the years I have had tomato gravy many times; it is always nice to have when company comes. Tomato Gravy is very simple to make, it goes with a variety of dishes but mainly when growing up it was a morning dish served with eggs.

It is kind of like you would make for stewed tomatoes but you start with juice (now having said this about stewed tomatoes it is is also good to use this recipe for stewed tomatoes. I think the addition of bacon drippings in the gravy or stewed tomatoes adds a bit of variety to the dish.

This dish is popular in Old Order Mennonite homes especially when they have company from visiting colonies, I have had it many times in homes for Sunday breakfast.

Tomato Gravy

in a skillet take some of the drippings that you got from frying bacon (or start with saved drippings) I am attempting to create a recipe for which no recipe exists in our family like so many things we don’t have written recipes you just make it.

 

4 servings.

 

4-6 Tablespoons Bacon Drippings or butter

4-6 Tablespoons Flour (you are making a Roux)

1 quart Tomato Juice, V-8 Juice or whole tomatoes (crushed by hand)

Salt and Pepper, and sugar to taste

 

Add Flour to dripping in a skillet over medium heat, brown slightly, then add,

a quart of tomato juice, V-8 juice (ours is home canned) or quart of whole tomatoes that have been crushed by hand.

Stir into the Roux, and continue to stir, taste and add salt and pepper as desired

Add a tablespoon of sugar or so according to preference (this helps smooth the acidic nature of the tomatoes and also as we always said helps take the green taste out)

As the mixture thickens keep stirring until desired thickness is achieved, if too thick thin with a bit of water or more juice, if too thin reduce  some, or you can add a thickening of a tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in water, and stir that in.

Serve with fried eggs, boiled or poached eggs, this is also a good side dish with any meal,. or over toast or biscuits or as said before a good way to make stewed tomatoes.

Note:  In many Old Order Mennonite homes when they have over night company for Sunday Breakfast the tomato gravy is made, placed into a baking pan, a well is made at regular intervals and an egg is broken into each well, then the pan of gravy and eggs are placed into the oven and baked just until the eggs are done, this is a quick and easy way to prepare this dish for a group of hungry people.

Caning- Age Old Art vs. Modern Technology

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Art, Basketry, Caning, cell phone, computers, conveniences, modern, Old Order Mennonites

Many things in my life have been lived from ages past, when I was a teenager, I joined the Old Order Mennonites of Dayton, Virginia. Life as an Old Order Mennonite, was living in the past, shunning modern technologies, and modern conveniences, we had no radios, televisions, cell phone, automobiles, or computers: no stereos etc. In a lot of instances no electricity.

Since I left when I was 26, (now 49) very little has changed, time virtually stands still for the Old Order Mennonites, I still live in the same area I always have, the same friends that I had back then still drive horse and buggies, still live without electricity, still shun computers, and I am almost certain you will not see them tweeting,or texting  that most people take for granted today.

I can with utmost certainty tell you that I do good to write this blog, turn on this computer, and pray that I can learn how to do it all today and get to the same place tomorrow. I have no innate desire for a cell phone, nor do I even have the most remote desire to know anything about texting.  (I will add here that I do have a cell phone ,which was loaned to me by friends that I only use as a land-line due to the disability, and inability to have a land-line at this time) in the day that I get the land-line, then the cell phone goes back!

In an effort since starting this blog, to keep up with the way readers get and share information, I have added a Twitter Widget to the blog, which I am still not sure what this does, I think it shares with all of you every-time I make a post to the blog, if it does not hopefully someone out there will let me know.

This morning I also added sharing buttons to the posts which will (or should ) appear at the bottom of each post. Like I said I have not a clue how any of this works, and when I have researched I just get one big pulsating vein in the side of my head trying to understand it all.  However for the readers it is there and I hope they use it and find it useful to them.

Just like the age old art of chair caning and basket weaving, I am happy living in the past, and do not need to progress through time with all the bells and whistles this life has to offer. However I will say that I am thankful for the computer which does allow me to make new friends around the world, and see what they are doing.

Please all of you readers bare with me while I try to figure all of this modern stuff out.