“I’m enjoying a beautiful day!” writes Lena Yoder, Amish diarist who wrote My Life as an Amish Wife: A Diary.
She continues, “While hanging out the laundry this forenoon, I heard the birds singing their songs. My favorites to listen to right now are the red-winged blackbird because of what their message means to me: Spring is on its way!”
Yoder feels grateful for Spring, like we all do.
Snow melting. Sun shining. Birds chirping. Flowers growing. All these seasonal changes means new life, a fresh outlook.
Spring Activities
In most Amish homes, spring means planting season, the start of something new. They tuck away the warm layered coats and wool socks for next winter and embrace spring. They break out garden gloves, hoes, and seeds to plant their vegetable plot.
“Ever since European persecution pushed them into rural areas, the Amish have been tillers of the soil — and good ones, too,” says Donald B. Kraybill, author of The Amish of Lancaster County. “The land has nurtured their common life and robust families.”
Kraybill cites that around 30 percent of Amish still live on farms and support their families through the raising crops.
Despite the recent years of the modern development of farms to neighborhoods or towns, many Amish still make a good living off of farming, especially from milk production.
For those families who rely on farming or tending animals for income, spring symbolizes a busy time of planting, preparing for the harvest of their hands in autumn. Even if Amish families are not involved in full-scale farming, many still have gardens to plant and animals to tend.
Farms with livestock see a great increase in size during springtime. New colts and calves are born.
All members of the family take part in the spring season. Women usually plant the gardens with the younger children. They manage the household, cooking large meals for their husbands and older boys who work in the fields.
Harvest Rewards
Lena Yoder, the Amish wife who shares much of her daily life and thoughts through her published diary, comments on her girls chores and laundry help.
“They, of course, get tired of it, but I think it is a wonderful opportunity to teach them to be faithful in many ways,” she days. “Faithful in participating in keeping the household running smoothly along with being faithful in unity and putting joy into a repetitious job.”
Spring in the Amish home is celebrated with long hours of hard work and early mornings before the sun wakes. But the Amish know their labor is not in vain, taking pride in their accomplishments, and waiting in eager anticipation for the harvest. They work well, in honor of their Lord and family
Hands grimy with dirt, muscles tired and sore — spring is work but work joyfully done.
Excerpts from My Life as an Amish Wife Copyright © Lena Yoder. Published by Harvest House Publishers. Eugene, Oregon 97402
Excerpts from The Amish of Lancaster County Copyright © 2008 by Stackpole Books. Published by STACKPOLE BOOKS. 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
You can find both books at our Intercourse location.
