good day to you sir Glen! From what we saw in Ohio, and being in the real estate business we worked with a number of them to purchase properties to invest in, they were buying rental homes and units, they are very savvy business people.
And of course their entire farming operations were geared toward supplying health food stores like the one we shopped at, the meats, eggs, produce, fruit and especially their wines(which are the best!)
So very modern and commercialized when it came to running their businesses. they make tons of money too. cheap labor, no insurance or union dues to pay, low overhead. But their home lives are a different matter.
I haven't heard that the Mennonites didn't want their pictures taken but they are similar in their beliefs to the Amish, at least in many ways.
Now that I think of it, there were some who were a little more strict about that than others. It was a couple of older business owners starting a restaurant, and I wanted to feature them in the newspaper. They declined and then told me why. A while later, there was another story with someone else, and they were okay with it. So it may have been individual interpretations of the faith, or different teachings within strains.
Well, it sounds like the Amish got it right if they have no insurance or union dues to pay, and low overhead. I guess if the labor is being done by them, their families or others in their community, cheap labor might be compensated in other ways. Sounds like the perfect set up to me.
I think I've had some kind of pie or pastry, which I really liked, but now I can't remember what it was. I know both the Amish and Mennonites are highly regarded here for all they do. I'm not sure where the Amish goods came from, though, since I'm not aware of a community around here.
Okay, looks like they're within fifty miles of here maybe. Hard to tell. Since they don't use the internet I'm relying on third party sites and they seem to be all over the place with their information. :)