MS CHEAP

Visiting Tennessee's Amish country: Ethridge makes a good day trip for all ages

Mary Hance
The Tennessean
Ethridge in Lawrence County is home to more than 250 Amish farms, whose owners live and farm without electricity or running water.

Just 80 miles from Nashville, there are about 250 farm families who choose to not have electricity, telephones, computers, cars or indoor plumbing.  

The area in Lawrence County is known as Swartzentruber Amish country, and it makes for an interesting day trip for all ages. 

You could easily take your own tour, using a free map and simply driving around the roads on both sides of Highway 43 and checking out the individual farm signs that advertise what they make and what's for sale.

But I recommend going on a wagon tour, like the one that three friends and I took last month out of the original Amish Welcome Center in Ethridge. 

The tour is only $10 per person ($5 for children 5-12 and free for those under 4) and gives you a full hour and a half or longer ride in a horse-drawn covered wagon. The wagon is driven by one Sam Pollock, who offered interesting commentary and happily answered dozens of questions about this conservative old-order Amish community that calls Ethridge, Tennessee, home.

"They are plain Jane people, no electricity, no indoor plumping," Sam told us, as we made our bumpy way along the 6-mile road where we visited five Amish farms.

We saw adults and children with their bonnets and hats and bare feet. And we saw lots of baked and canned goods, including beets, peppers and jellies. 

Fresh produce is plentiful at roadside stands and flea markets in Lawrence County

We visited a furniture workshop, where no one was working but we could see beds, dressers and cutting boards in various stages of construction. Sam showed us a super creative oak high chair, designed to convert into both a rocking horse and a school desk.

We saw the outside of several one-room school houses. We passed a saw mill and drove by acres and acres of cultivated farm land. We went to a home where they made cedar swings and gliders. We walked through a basket workshop, and we saw vegetables, like squash, cabbage, cantelopes and onions, on porches and in sheds almost everywhere we went.   

Between Sam Pollock and his mother, Diann Pollock, who runs the Amish Welcome Center, we learned a lot about the Amish lifestyle. Here are some highlights:  

What about the Amish lifestyle?

This Amish community, which is one of the largest and most conservative in the country, was started by four or five families, who came by train in 1944 with their horses, farm equipment and household goods. The early settlers were from Ohio, Mississippi and Pennsylvania. Now there are about 250 farms, most of which are 50 acres or more.  

The Amish area is roughly defined as being 35 miles east to west and 5-6 miles north to south along U.S. Highway 43 in Lawrence County. There are also some non-Amish families (referred to as "English" by the Amish) living and farming in the area.  

Most of the Amish families have 10 or more children. Some have as many as 20 children. 

The Amish make their own clothing and they go barefoot through the warm months.

The predominant language of the Ethridge Amish people is what they call Pennsylvania Dutch, but most of them speak some English, usually with a slight accent.

Goods for sale in the Amish country around Ethridge, Tennnessee.

In the Ethridge area there are more than a dozen one-room Amish school houses (each with two outhouses, one for boys, and one for girls.) The children start school at age 7 and go through eighth grade or age 14, learning basic math, reading, writing, German and English.

The Amish allow marriage at age 21. 

No photography is allowed for religious reasons. Mirrors are also shunned, kept in drawers except when the men use them to shave their upper lips. 

The men all have beards. As Sam Pollock told us, "some of them look like ZZ Top and some couldn't grow one to save his life."  

The Amish are devout Christians and there are all-day Amish church services, held in various homes, every other Sunday. On the alternate Sundays, they visit family or the elderly or ill members of their community.  

The black horse-drawn Amish buggies that you see along the highways generally hold about four people. It would take a buggy bout 35-40 minutes to make the 5-mile trip into Lawrenceburg from Ethridge,  

With no electricity, the Amish use kerosene lamps for lighting and diesel engines to run machinery. 

In addition to growing vegetables, the three main crops on the Amish farms are tobacco, corn and sorghum cane.

Roadside signs will let you know what various farms in Tennessee's Amish country have for sale.

Things to know if you go

There are several welcome centers and stores in the Ethridge area that promote tours of the Amish farms. It is possible to just walk up and get a tour, but it is better to make a reservation. We used the original Amish Welcome Center, at 3942 U.S. Highway 43 North for our wagon tour. It has been in business for more than 20 years, originally operating at Granny's Amish Welcome Center and now owned and operated by the Pollock family. The tours, which are offered Monday through Saturday, takes you about six miles, stopping at five farms to look around and shop. Call 931-829-2433 for more information.

A free brochure from the Welcome Center shows the more than 50 Amish homes that have things for sale, everything from fresh vegetables, peanut brittle, jellies and jams and sorghum molasses, to baked goods and furniture, rugs, baskets, walking sticks, cutting boards, birdhouses  and even caskets, air fresheners, bunnies and puppies.

Almost every house has hand-painted roadside signs telling you what they have for sale. Even if you take the official tour, it is fun to take your map and drive your own car along the farm roads afterward to see what other places are offering. Some of the houses have an honor system where you can drop money in a slot to pay for your purchase if no one is home. 

Bread, pastries and sour cherry fried pies find their way into your shopping basket as you wander the backroads of Lawrence County

The Amish food all looked good but my group had mixed reviews. The fried pies that we bought at the Welcome Center were absolutely wonderful — light, fruity, delicious. But, sorry to say, the breads each of us bought at one of the farms were dry and not good at all.    

Take cash for shopping and for a tip if you take the tour. While the Welcome Center is happy to accept credit cards and has an ATM machine, the Amish stands on the farms are mostly cash-only. 

The Amish typically do not negotiate on prices, unless you are buying in bulk. 

Wear sensible shoes. You will be climbing in and out of the wagon and walking to and from the Amish stands and shops. You might want some bug spray and hand sanitizer, too. 

Visitors on the tours or on their own are asked to respect the Amish beliefs about photography. It is tempting to shoot pictures because there are so many photo ops, but it is against the Amish religion to have their photographs taken.  

There is an Amish Ploughboy Produce Auction that you can visit and buy bulk produce. Unfortunately, we missed going there because it is only open Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. 

A totally random but useful tidbit: In addition to her Welcome Center duties, Diann Pollock does jewelry repair. So take your pieces that need a little help and she might be able to fix them while you are on the tour. 

Lunch on the day trip  

I always have to eat when I am out on an adventure like this and we were given two good recommendations for an affordable Ethridge-area lunch.

Shaffer Farms Texas BBQ and Meat Market in Summertown, where my day trip group dined on Texas-sized plates of brisket, ranch potatoes and other sides. It is located about 6 miles from the Amish Welcome Center,  at 4 Vaughn Staggs Road just off Highway 43 in Summertown. 931-964-6328

Marshall's Grocery and gas station, which is known for its grill and deli where you can get a delicious ham sandwich for $1.70, or a burger for $2.25. They also have homemade pies. Marshall's has a counter and tables in a small dining room, and there is a pool table if you want to shoot a quick game after lunch. Marshall's is located at  3706 US 43 in Ethridge, about a mile from the Welcome Center. 931-829-2151

Enjoy your day among the Amish. It is definitely a different world. 

Stay cheap!

Reach Ms. Cheap at 615-259-8282 or mscheap@tennessean.com. Follow her on Facebook at facebook.com/mscheap, and at Tennessean.com/mscheap, and on Twitter @Ms_Cheap, and catch her every Thursday at 11 a.m. on WTVF-Channel 5’s “Talk of the Town.”