Amish Reality

I recently came across a book cover—albeit a spoof—for Amish vampire kittens in outer space.

While it may seem farfetched, there are an awful lot of crazy Amish tie-ins these days. It seems that everyone wants to tell the reality-TV, sci-fi, or romance-novel version of the Amish story.

But at MennoMedia we have been offered the opportunity to help Amish writers tell their own stories for a change. Through conversation prompted by one such published Amish writer, we were eager to begin syndicating a weekly newspaper column called Lovina’s Amish Kitchen.

Lovina Eicher, author of a long-running and well-loved column about her Amish life, is working with us to start a new column syndicated by MennoMedia, Lovina’s Amish Kitchen.

Lovina is an Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Formerly writing as The Amish Cook, Lovina inherited that column from her mother, Elizabeth Coblentz, who wrote from 1991 to 2002.

Through Lovina’s Amish Kitchen, Lovina will continue to connect weekly with her huge base of readers and fans. And she will continue the tradition of reaching readers with dispatches and recipes from her Amish home.

Lovina’s winning combination of tasty family recipes and writings about her daily life and faith as an Amish mother, wife, and cook have earned her a loyal audience with thousands of readers across the United States.

Each weekly column opens with about a 600-word reflection on the events of her household, community, and church district, and concludes with a favorite family recipe. She will follow this format weekly. Total column length is between 700-750 words. The rate for the column depends on a newspaper’s circulation, and we are open to hearing from any newspapers in your area who might be interested in such a column! This is not our first venture into syndicating a newspaper column. Perhaps you already read the long-running Another Way newspaper column by our staff member Melodie Davis, which has been syndicated since 1987.

We at MennoMedia are honored to work with Lovina in bringing her authentic Amish voice to both her loyal readers, and also readers who have not yet discovered her work. We are confident that Lovina’s Amish Kitchen, with its homespun Amish wisdom and hearty recipes, will greatly appeal to readers and give people a glimpse into authentic Amish living.

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen just launched July 1, and a new column will be posted online every Friday afternoon (after running earlier in the week in newspapers). Here is the recipe for sugar cookies in her first column:

Sugar Cookies

• 4 cups white sugar
• 2 cups lard (or use 1 cup margarine, softened, and 1 cup lard)
• 3 cups buttermilk or sour milk
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons baking soda
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 9–10 cups flour (just enough that you can handle dough)

Mix all ingredients except flour. Gradually add flour, mixing well. Chill dough for a few hours or overnight. Drop by teaspoon on a greased cookie sheet and bake 10 minutes or until bottom is golden. When cool, frost if desired.

You can read more about Lovina and her new column at her website, or find her on Facebook or Twitter! You may be interested to know that she writes her columns with pen and paper and mails them to us. We then get them ready for electronic publishing. She is happy to correspond with readers who write to her at the Post Office box given at the website and elsewhere.

Amy Gingerich, editorial director