A hardworking Amish farm is a family business. A legacy of land, livestock, and a thriving dairy business, the dairy farm relies on lots of elbows and grease. With the laundry hanging to dry, visiting the farm is stepping into another world.
While the younger children play, the older children help with the fall harvest.
Young calves happily greeting visitors.
And milking cows waiting for the afternoon milking.
When visiting Amish Country in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, you can actually stay at a working Amish Dairy Farm. The Beacon Hollow Farm allows visitors to enjoy life on a farm in a two-bedroom cottage that includes electricity! Who knows? Perhaps they’ll let you drive the tractor if you dare.
Categories: Foot Prints, travel
Emily Carter ~ Nature as Art 
nice photos
Thank you Faz!
Loving your post – great photos – enjoyed the Amish Dairy Farm Tour:) Reminds me of my growing up years on a farm and around family farms. Have a Great One:)
I didn’t realize that you grew up on a farm Renee. What type of farm was it?
Nice series, Emily. It would have been very interesting to be there.
Thank you so much Bente. It really was interesting. The pregnant cows stand in a barn for several months while being milked. They are fed an amazing mash and produces wonderful milk which is sold to the high-grade “Land of Lakes” brand.
The Amish certainly have a great work ethic. Thanks for the great pics. Emily
They certainly do Sylvia, almost to a fault. It’s hard backbreaking work they do.
Great series! I enjoyed these!
Thank you so much Phil !
Excellent pictures! So much more to these pictures that is seen through your lens. The clothes hanging to dry, kids playing outside, livestock, and an older tractor! Wow!!
It is really stepping into their lives and being a part of it. Thank you so much for such a kind comment Judy!
Wonderful photos – some of it reminds me of my childhood in the early 60s visiting my grandparents and their countryside life – I’m surprised they have a tractor and semi-automatic milking systems it requires the “forbidden” driving force or what..? 🙂
What they do is hire “English” to drive the machinery for them. Some of them are driven by mule teams. They are allowed to use air compressors for power if need be.
I have always had a deep interest in the way of life of the Amish community. What a treat it is for me to see glimpses of the world they live in through your photos! Beautiful. Comforting. Peaceful. Thank you Emily. Sharon
It seems so serene and back to basics life, but in reality their religion is quite strict and unforgiving. The work requirements are rigorous, and the children don’t get an education past 8th grade. The fantasy is far better than the reality. Great seeing you Sharon ! Have your elf hat on yet?
Food for thought indeed Emily. Thank you so much for sharing with me this aspect of life and the reminder of the realities of maintaining such strict adherence to separation from the outside world. I would love to hear more of your personal encounters with the Amish community and your experiences working on the farm! Greetings from a fantastically white, snowy, wintery day! We are all snowed up 😀
An interesting pet. I was curious about your comment hat the pregnant cows stand in a barn for months. Do you mean that they are not able to go into a field at all during that period?
Hi Rachael – you are the only one that caught that comment. I didn’t want to emphasize it too much as it shocked the heck out of me. The cows are pregnant for 6 months, and in that time, they stand, lay down and sleep in the little space they are given on the cemented, barred stall. It is actually quite cruel, so I’m amazed that they get away from it. All energy is used to produce high quality milk.
Ugh – iPad’s predictive text strikes again. For “pet” please read “post”.. Sorry.
LOL ! Got to laugh as I have that problem all the time with my iPhone
Not so different from all the farms I have known. Nice photos enjoyed your visit you gotta know I love Cows 🙂
Awesome ! You love cows ! They are sweet, but certainly are smelly ! I like horse smells so much better. 🙂
🙂 yes all true and I do like horses but prefer the WILD ONES 🙂
Love it!! You do such a wonderful job in letting us visit with you. Just adorable images….
I love sharing my adventures with you – can’t wait to explore more!
This is so nice!! One day I want to visit an Amish farm as well! 🙂
It was just a short visit, so I hope that perhaps one day I can actually stay overnight on the farm. I’d be game to try to milk a cow. 🙂
I’ve tried it once, and it was much more difficult that I’d thought. But fun!! 🙂
MOO MOO…. Reminds me of childhood days at my Great Aunt & Uncles dairy farm in Wisconsin.
I caught the bit with the pregnant cow in the barn-reminded me of how they use to (not sure if they still do it) but they use to keep certain calves penned in the barn for baby beef-veal. Cruel indeed. 😦
Love the photo storyboard.
Wow, that must have been a fantastic farm in Wisconsin. Got to love that we come from farming stock. We’re hardy and will last forever !
This farm didn’t use calves for veal, it was more about the milk as they sell it to Land o Lakes. I hard a hard time seeing the terrible conditions on how they keep the pregnant cow in such a restricted and harsh stall (although I would rather call it a prison.)
The dairy farm had one calf for veal-a special breed. Yes, sad. But, the dairy farm was a blast chasing feral cats, feeding the hogs, collecting the cows to milk and frightful experiences of collecting eggs in the morning for breakfast-the chickens didn’t want to give up their eggs! LOL
For anyone interested in staying at this Amish farm bed & breakfast there’s a new website where you can see more photos, get information and check availability of the guesthouse at Beacon Hollow farm (beautifully photographed above), another nearby Amish farm called Country Lane Farm and a couple Mennonite farms: http://lancasterfarmbnb.com/
Appreciate the link Dave. There is always someone interested in somewhere to stay.