When I go back to Ohio to visit my family, I like to spend some time in Ohio's Amish Country, which isn't that far from where my parents live. We visited on a warm-but-not-too-humid day at the end of August. We were hoping to see more of them at work in the fields, but we did not see too many. However, we did see a lot of schools in session. We must have passed at least a dozen different small schoolhouses (the one-room ones) with the children playing outside.
We basically did a road trip following a map. We entered the Amish Country near Keene and went down back roads before visiting Charm, where there were road works taking place, and the road works took a long time to get through. We ended up stopping at Miller's Bakery just outside of Charm. The cookies and cinnamon rolls were delicious here.
We also stopped off at The Farm at Walnut Creek but decided to leave it for another visit. In the end, we headed to Walnut Creek Cheese, a huge shopping centre that is filled with crafts, kitchen and household items, and a grocery store. We purchased some cold meats, cheeses, and pumpkin cupcakes. They ended up being very good and very "light".
Hillcrest Orchard was next on the list, and my mother suggested it. I'm sure I had been there before. They do sometimes buy apples from my family. We tried some samples of apple cider, and we admired all of the autumn decorations (pumpkins/gourds) out on display.
Lunch was the next stop, and we opted for Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen in Mount Hope, which I had heard was good. (There was also a good pizza restaurant in Sugar Creek, but we opted for comfort home-style food.) This was actually the best meal that I had in Ohio. The chicken was very tender, and I tried the turkey (which I nearly got) that my mother had, and it was delicious and tender too. I ordered a side of corn and a side of fried potatoes. Everything was delicious. My mother and I split a peanut butter cream pie for dessert.
The bloke had salmon, fried potatoes, and broccoli. He said it was one of his best meals as well, and the glaze on the salmon was very good.
Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen is also very popular with Amish as we saw a lot of them and saw a lot of working farmers around too. Mount Hope is known for its argiculture auctions, so it attracts a lot of people for those.
After the lunch, we slowly headed our way back, taking in the scenery and discovering what was around the next bend. Sometimes, we saw wonderful scenery and homesteads.
Sometimes we saw someone working in the field, such as this man and his two young children mowing hay with horses.
Compared to previous visits to the Amish country, the use of horses and old machinery is becoming a thing of the past. Many are now using vintage tractors and modern machinery. Many also have and use mobile phones, and we saw solar panels on some of their homes.
We enjoyed our visit as usual, and we stopped off at three wineries on the way back home.
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