Northern Indiana Amish Country: enjoy life in the `past' lane on a journey into yesteryear

Travel America, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Randy Mink, Karen Mink

HOOFBEATS ECHOING OFF THE pavement reflect the slower pace of the Amish people, a plain folk who travel backroads and main streets in horse-drawn buggies, the way their ancestors did a century ago. Foregoing many trappings of modern life, they manage to live without "necessities" like telephones or cable TV.

It's hard to believe these old-fashioned ways survive--in fact, thrive--just two hours from metropolitan Chicago. Indiana's Amish Country is just the escape for frazzled city-dwellers, especially those looking for hand-crafted treasures, cozy bed and breakfasts, and a heady dose of nostalgia.

The bustling little towns of Amish Country--inviting places like Nappanee, Goshen, Middlebury, and Shipshewana--are are located a short drive south of the Indiana Toll Road (I-80/90), the main east-west corridor across the top of Indiana.

Perhaps the best-known town is Nappanee (pop. 5,600), recently designated one of the 10 quaintest towns in America by lime magazine. Clustered downtown along U.S. Route 6 are more than 35 tidy shops. Best buys include solid wood furniture crafted by Amish men who learned the trade from their fathers and grandfathers. Also prized are the exquisite quilts painstakingly stitched by Amish women.

A new bike and walking trail connects downtown Nappanee to Amish Acres, a historic farmstead turned tourist attraction. Walking tours, buggy rides, two documentary films, and the 1955 Broadway musical "Plain & Fancy" in the Round Barn Theatre shed light on the heritage of the Amish people, who settled this area in the 1800s.

Depending on the season, Amish Acres visitors can see how maple syrup, apple butter, sorghum molasses, and dried foods are produced. Demonstrations also feature skills like the making of lye soap, candles, brooms, quilts, and rugs.

Amish Acres' Restaurant Barn, with its oaken floorboards, oilcloth-covered tables, and hand-hewn beams, serves up an all-you-can, eat Threshers Dinner, served family-style. Just a few of the menu items: thick ham & bean soup, freshly baked hearth bread, sweet & sour cabbage salad, beef & noodles, and meat entrees like roast turkey and cider-baked, hickory-smoked ham. This is the place to try molasses-based shoofly pie.

When you're hungry again, stop by Das Dutchman Essenhaus, outside of Middlebury, for more heaping helpings of hearty Amish fare. At Indiana's largest restaurant (1,100 seats), feast on broasted chicken, roast beef, bread dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and homemade noodles, not to mention bread slathered with apple butter. The tantalizing selection of pies ranges from rhubarb custard to German chocolate. An attraction in itself, the Essenhaus village complex includes gift shops, a tempting bakery, animal petting farm, miniature golf course, and 40-room country inn.

Many Amish Country visitors schedule their trip in the middle of the week so they can prowl the Midwest's largest outdoor flea market, held every Tuesday and Wednesday, May through October, in Shipshewana. More than 1,100 vendors set up booths at the' Shipshewana Flea Market, offering a trove of treasures--outlet closeouts, imports, tools, clothes, crafts, collectibles, and foods. Antique hounds flock year-round to Wednesday's antique auction next door.

Across the road from the flea market, the Farmstead Inn offers a convenient haven for shoppers. A few steps north is Trading Place Antiques, with more than 120 dealers.

Visitors with questions about the "plain people" can get answers during a tour at the Menno-Hof Mennonite-Amish Visitors Center, also across the road from the flea market. Hands-on displays and multi-media presentations tell how these quiet people of faith escaped persecution in Europe and ended up in Northern Indiana. (The Amish, who broke from the Mennonites in 1693, follow a simpler lifestyle than do their more worldly brethren.)

Between Shipshewana and Middlebury, stop at Das Kase Haus for some of their Colby cheese and try a jar of Amish peanut butter, a sweet concoction made with marshmallow and Karo syrup.

In addition to visiting shops and attractions, set aside some time to explore backroads at your own pace; just be patient with the buggy traffic. It's a chance to see barefoot kids playing in yards and farmers working the fields.

If you prefer a pre-planned driving tour, pick up a "Heritage Trail Tour" audio cassette or CD (free with a $20 refundable deposit) from the Amish Country Visitors Center, just north of Elkhart. The self-paced, 90-mile loop brings to life the region's people, history, and landmarks. Also available is a "Furniture Crafters" audio tour that connects the workshops of Amish craftsmen.

To get a real feel for Amish hospitality, spend an overnight in one of the many bed-and-breakfast homes that dot the area. We stayed at Spring View, a modern, five-guest room B&B overlooking a spring-fed lake on 48 acres near Goshen.

Our friendly hosts, Phil and Roz Slabaugh, arranged for their Amish neighbor to take our family, two at a time, on a buggy ride through the countryside. While waiting our turn to ride, we were made welcome at a "hen party," a routine get-together of Amish women working on their crafts.