Elkhart County, Indiana: Amish, Mennonites, small Stores and Bakeries, RVs, and Cornfields

According to the Amish America website, the Elkhart-LaGrange Counties in Indiana have the third largest Amish population in the United States, behind Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and Holmes County, Ohio. Elkhart County also has a large Mennonite population. Elkhart county is located about 20 miles east of South Bend, Indiana, where I have been staying this week. Below is the front page of a tourist magazine I picked up.

The magazine has a Heritage Trail map with a recommended driving route in red. I pretty much drove the recommended route today.

I saw a lot of farmland. Google maps actually took me down some small roads -- even a gravel road (I'm not sure why -- maybe it doesn't know the difference between paved and gravel roads?).

I'm a sucker for fresh soft pretzels, so when I saw the soft pretzel bakery inthe Coppes Commons shops in Nappanee, I had to buy one. I always order the plain pretzel, which comes salted and buttered. Maybe I'll try the sugar cinnamon pretzel sometime.

I saw a lot of Amish riding in horse-drawn buggies or carriages.

One of the roads had a shoulder for the horse carriages, which was nice because it didn't slow down traffic.

I also saw a lot of men, women and children riding bicycles. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, the Amish cyclists wore straw hats. Some of the cyclists here were wearing straw hats, but I saw several others wearing beanies. I read that the Amish in Indiana often wear a beanie instead of a straw hat when cycling. That would be especially nice when it is cold. Today was in the mid-80s, though.

In addition to seeing horse-drawn carriages on road, some carriages were parked at farmhouses or businesses. I saw several signs in front yards advertising businesses such as furniture, tool sharpening, woodworking, baskets, or produce.

I drove by a couple of carriages for sale in people's yards. The sign says they are asking $400 for the carriage or wagon in the photo below.

The Forks County Line Store in Middlebury, Indiana, had more carriages than automobiles in the grocery store parking lot!

A lot of RV manufacturers have facilities in the area. I read that a lot of Mennonites work at the RV factories. The Thor Motor Coach company has several local plants.

Some of the parking lots had Mercedes or Ford vans rather than RVs. I think many of the companies do RV conversions, or do specialty conversions for specific companies. For example, one parking lot was full of Sprinter vans painted with the Amazon logo. 

I saw several bakeries, restaurants, and small stores with quilts and other goods. I bought some "Amish Country" microwave popcorn at one of the stores. I had seen Amish Country popcorn on Amazon and at farmers markets, but I had never seen Amish Country microwave popcorn before today. The packaging says they are white hulless. Hulless popcorn sounds nice!

There were a lot of cornfields. Some had been harvested and others had not. That caused me to want to understand how corn is harvested... especially by the Amish, who use horses for a lot of the work. I'll write a separate blog entry on what I have learned about corn harvesting.

Tonight is my last night at the Varsity Club timeshare in Mishawaka, Indiana. Tomorrow I'll be a vagabond on the road again.