Amish Country Blog

Members of the Maple Leaf Quilt Guild, Heartland Quilters, Artful Quilters, New Paris Puzzler Quilt Guild, Happy Hoosier Homemakers, Zion Extension Club, and Pie Gabba Sew are organized to welcome over 1,000 quilters into Elkhart County on National Quilting Day, Saturday, March 20, 2010 at the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds in Goshen.  Purdue Extension Services Educator, Mary Ann Lienhart-Cross remarks, “The rich heritage of quilting and hospitality make Elkhart County an ideal location to host this 20th anniversary event”.

“The Gathering of Quilters” features a quilt block exchange, a quilt exhibit and show, local demonstrations with product sales, and vendors offering quilt supplies, products, fabrics, notions and kits. Guest speaker, Brenda Papadakis, an expert in applique and Civil War era quilts and designs and the author of the 1996 “Dear Jane” book is the keynote speaker. In her famous book which started the “Dear Jane” quilt craze, Papadakis has lovingly recreated the two hundred twenty-five patterns from the celebrated Jane A. Blakely Stickle 1863 quilt. Brenda will lead a keynote session drawing attendees into the historical context of Jane’s achievement and connecting her to quilting
lives today.

Contact Diana Bennett at 574.642.4194 for information.

Mindy, Amish Country Northern Indiana Contributor and Visitor Center Specialist

Eyedart studio gallery invites art lovers and art haters to see an unorthodox exhibit in downtown Goshen. Regardless of ones interest or indifference to art, the exhibit is worth the visit. “Contemporary American and Italian Artists on Paper”, featuring forty-two works by twenty-one artists from Italy and the United States, offers a rare chance to view art created by internationally-renowned, master-status artists. After an eight-week pause in Goshen, the traveling exhibit will voyage to galleries in Milan and Rome, Italy.

The exhibit is the brainchild of Scott L. Hatt, artist and curator from the Spurious Fugitive in South Bend, Indiana, and David Lester Learn. David spent over fifteen years living and traveling in Italy, cultivating relationships with some of the most respectable artists and galleries in the country. Upon returning to South Bend in 2009, Hatt and Learn began collaborating to bring their American and Italian artist-associates together.

While it may seem that Midwestern and Italian artists could not be more disparate, Hatt and Learn saw more connections than divisions between the two groups. “In the twenty-first century, artists around the world are dealing with the impact of globalization on media, art, and technology,” says Hatt. “The exhibit exploits these similarities.”

As a reflection of common issues with which contemporary artists grapple, Hatt established a few basic rules of symmetry: all of the pieces had to be created on paper, trimmed to the same size, matted and framed uniformly. Not shockingly, each artist’s piece stretches the boundaries of their same-sized frames. Stitches, string, photography, paint, pencil, ink, crayons, cardboard, and wax found their way into the works.

Another commonality within this group is a willingness to collaborate without reservation. “The Italian gallery owners with whom we worked were very generous; choosing artists with major art careers in Europe and the U.S.,” said Hatt. “For example, they invited Nini’ Santoro, who generously created two pieces for the show.” Santoro, whose name is less familiar in Northern Indiana, is well known in art history books and in major art hubs throughout the world. Many museums around the world house his work including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  “Two other Italian artists with advanced careers are Aldo Bertolini and Marisa Facchinetti, both of whom have a concurrent show at the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, California.”

“On the American side,” continued Hatt, “The show features some heavy-hitters including Fred Stonehouse, Adam Benjamin Fung, and Timothy Vermeulen. Stonehouse, a Milwaukee native, has shown his work all over the globe. The Zolla/Liberman Gallery, in Chicago, represents Fung. With both the Americans and Italians, we’re achieving the Spurious Fugitive’s goal of bringing art to our community that wouldn’t otherwise be shown in Northern Indiana.”

So go to Eyedart and enjoy this great show.  Let us know what you thought of it, and leave us a comment.

Mindy, Amish Country Northern Indiana Contributor and Visitor Center Specialist

Goshen’s 3rd Annual Ice Carving and Chili Competition kicks off the New Year, on January 1 and 2. The popular First Fridays event, Fire and Ice Festival, will give revelers one last holiday fling!

Members of the Michiana Ice Carvers Association (MICA) will carve 700-pound blocks of ice in front of downtown stores on Friday from 5 – 9 p.m. Watch these sculptures take form while you shop downtown businesses offering holiday specials.

The Friday ice sculpture carving is sponsored by area businesses

Then the celebration continues on Saturday, January 2, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

To keep everyone warm and fed, the Chili Fire Competition will also be going on Saturday. Free tastings are available, but tickets required – only 500 will be available. Pick tickets up at the Fire & Ice Festival Headquarters located in the lobby of the Goshen Theater, 216 South Main Street. Tasters can vote for their favorite soup at the Headquarters. The winner will be announced on West Washington Street on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Chili competition coordinator, Darin Short said competitors in this annual tradition invite everyone to taste their special brand of chili. Participating restaurants:

Constant Spring (219 South Main Street)
El Duranguenze (113 West Washington Street)
Electric Brew (136 South Main Street)
Kelly Jae’s Cafe (133 South Main Street)
Maple City Market (314 South Main Street)
Mattern’s Butcher Shop & Corner Deli (201 South Main Street)
Olympia Candy Kitchen (136 North Main Street)
The Window (233 South Main Street)
Tony’s Famous Grill (103 North Fifth Street)

Ice Sculpture Competition on Washington and Main Streets

Contestants test their skills with elaborate competition pieces. With more time to sculpt, and larger blocks of ice, the artists have time to make truly amazing sculptures. Judges will review award cash prizes to the top three contestants.

Sponsors for the competition piece are:

Best Western Hotel
Bill’s Heating, Inc.
Goshen City Republican Committee
Goshen College
Judd Family Dentistry
Mennonite Mutual Aid
Middlebury Electric, Inc.
Salon J
Spohn Ballroom
Troyer Foods

Whether you go on Friday or Saturday, or you enjoy both days, Goshen’s 3rd Annual Fire and Ice Festival will be a crowd pleasing event.

Mindy, Amish Country Northern Indiana Contributor and Visitor Center Specialist

The ECCVB has long recognized the importance of cultural and heritage travel and developed the Heritage Trail to increase visitor volume, diversity, spending and economic impact for the entire destination. It’s the cornerstone for many programs. The nationally recognized route, along with a self-guiding audio tour, takes visitors into the downtowns of our cities and towns and along country roads introducing them to the area’s history, heritage, and people while directing them to must-see attractions. It’s dynamic; it’s popular; and it’s free. In 2009 alone, we’ve distributed over 3,200 Heritage Trail CDs. Add to that over 3,000 audio downloads from our website. When you consider our average visitor spends $52 per day and stays 2.8 days, then multiply that by an average 2.5 persons per vehicle, the economic impact of heritage travel is significant

-Diana Lawson, FCDME, ECCVB Executive Director

Have you driven the Heritage Trail Audio Driving Tour? Leave a comment and tell us about your experience.

Kercher’s Harvest Festival is coming up on October 10th and 11th.  I’m sure if you go, you’ll have fun.

When I was little, Kercher’s Market use to be on SR 15, and it was one of my first experiences with farm fresh vegetable and fruits.  I can still remember how the place smelled like apples.  They changed a little bit over the years, but it’s still a fun experience.

At the Harvest Fest, you can pick pumpkins and apples.  I love going out to the pumpkin patch and seeing what kinds of pumpkins other people are getting.  Some people wanted the biggest pumpkin they can get, but remember you’re carrying that 15lb pumpkin to the car—without dropping it! It does make decorating for fall enjoyable.

Kercher’s has great food at the Harvest Festival, along with plenty of apple cider. Of course, there are apples, lots and lots of apples.

So go to Kercher’s Harvest Festival and enjoy your day outside, enjoying fall.  If you have any memories of Kercher’s you’d like to share, let me know.  I’d love to hear from you.

-Mindy, Amish Country Northern Indiana Contributor and Visitor Center Specialist

It’s not so surprising to see travel research ranking visiting small towns tops the list of desired vacation activities. Elkhart County is especially blessed with terrific cities and towns with vibrant main streets.

The ECCVB is showing them off in exciting new ways to motivate travelers and keep them interested by launching a series of video clips promoting our cities and towns on our  new YouTube Channel.

Take a look. This is just the beginning!

Let us know what you think of these videos, leave your comment here.

I was at the Elkhart County 4-H Fair this Sunday with my husband Mike, and my two year old Mina. It was wonderful. The first Sunday of the fair is free admission. Sunday after church the grounds are usually packed. My first advice for those going to the fair on this day is come early. We show up around 9am. Of course rides and the commercial buildings don’t open till Noon, but it’s better than waiting 30 minutes to an hour trying to get into the fair after church lets out—and the traffic stays that way for the rest of the day.

First, we ate breakfast at the Elkhart County Noon Exchange building. We ate pancakes and sausage. The pancakes are all you can eat, and with drink it was $5.50, a great deal for breakfast. Then we go and see all the animals. With my two year old, certain animals are easier than other. She loved the ducks and geese, but they were in the same building as the roosters, and the roosters were too loud. Cows were too big, and pigs were too noisy. The bunnies, goats and llamas were OK.

We then went to Young McDonald’s Farm. Here is a donkey, miniature horses, chicks, a huge sow, and turtles. It’s a great area for little ones. By this time it was 11:45am and the rides and commercial buildings were almost open.

We choose instead of doing the commercial buildings to eat an elephant ear. The best elephant ears are at the small red barn by the grandstand. My two year old had cinnamon in her hair and shirt, but her smile was while eating it was worth the mess.

We left at noon. It was great way to spend a morning. As we were leaving the fair, the line into the fair was already a mile and a half backed up on SR 4, and we were very glad we went early.

The Elkhart County 4-H Fair runs this week until Saturday.

I love our fair. Let me know what you like about the Elkhart County 4-H fair, or if you love another 4-H fair, I’d like to hear about it.

-Mindy, Amish Country Northern Indiana Contributor and Visitor Center Travel Specialist

I was in Downtown Goshen this past Friday for First Fridays. For those who don’t know, on the first Friday of every month, Goshen opens its downtown for the evening. There are special events that are planned, and businesses stay open later to welcome the guests.

There was entertainment for everyone on the courtyard lawn. The fountain in front of the Courthouse makes for a great kid gathering place. Amazingly, nobody was in the fountain. Music seemed to permeate the whole downtown. There was a band at the courthouse, and one Washington Street. My little one was dancing most of the night.

On this particular Friday, there was a cruisin’ reunion. For those of you that don’t know, Goshen allowed cruising, until they shut it down in the mid 1980’s. The event gave everyone with a vintage car to come out and have fun for the night. A few of the cars had to be helped along, but most of those older cars were still able to move without problems. The drivers were grinning from ear to ear. You could that they were having a great time.

So when you come to Amish Country, plan your visit to include the first Friday of the month, and plan to visit Goshen. You’ll be glad that you added First Fridays to your trip. If you’ve been to Goshen for First Fridays, let me know what you enjoyed about your time downtown.

-Mindy, Amish Country Northern Indiana Contributor and Visitor Center Travel Specialist

This summer, the Elkhart County Visitor Center is teaming up with area Parks Departments to show 6 free movies – Friday Night Flicks! Shanklin Park in Goshen is the site for 3 of the movies; June 19– Babe the Gallant Pig, June 26 – Charlotte’s Web (2006) and August 14 – An American Tail.

Kardzhali Park in Elkhart (adjacent to NICBO Water and Ice Park along the Riverwalk) is the other site for the 3 movies; July 17 – Chicken Run, July 31 – The Wizard of Oz (1939), August 7 – The Adventures of Milo and Otis. The movies start around 9:30pm.

Both parks are accessible to their downtowns. Shanklin by way of the Mill Race; Kardzhali by way of the Riverwalk. You could easily walk from the parks to downtown, eat, and then exercise off dinner by walking back and playing in the parks.

Bring a cooler with your own snacks and soda, bring your blankets or chairs and don’t forget the bug spray. You’ll have a great time at the movies. What a great way to have a family fun night—free!

-Mindy, Amish Country Northern Indiana Contributor and Visitor Center Travel Specialist

I’ve been told that Hoosier use the word “enjoy” more than anyone other Midwest state I thought that was a strange observation, until I realized how much I use the word enjoy when I’m talking. So here are some things that I enjoy.

I enjoy all the good homemade baked items that we can buy in this area from the rosemary garlic cabatta bread at Artisan’s Bread in the American Countryside Farmers Market, to the doughnuts and pies from the Essenhaus Bakery. I also know too many people who enjoy all of our homemade baked-goods and now enjoy a trip to the gym five times a week to keep with their habit.

I enjoy all the festivals that come up in the spring through fall. The first one of the Spring is the Wakarusa Maple Syrup Festival, April 17 and 18th. and I hope you all go and have fun.

I enjoy this area. I enjoy living by the St. Joe River and being able to walk beside it every day. I enjoy how the ducks see a human, automatically recognize the human as a source of food, and come quacking. I enjoy living in a city that has three parks within walking distance of where I live. I enjoy having county parks within minutes of where I live.
This is just some of things that I enjoy about this area. Can you let me know what you enjoy when you visit this area? I can’t wait to hear from you – and if I receive enough responses, I’ll put them in a future blog.

-Mindy
Amish Country Northern Indiana Contributor and Visitor Center Travel Specialist