There is not only one kind of Amish, and Anabaptists. There are many. There are Old Order Amish (Mosie and his family); Other Amish Groups, Old Order Mennonite Groups, Old Order Brethren Groups, Other Brethren Groups, Plain Cousins. –  The Riddle Of Amish Culture, Donald B. Kraybill.

The more time I spend with Moise, the more interested I am in the deep and boundless passion he has for the land, from water to soil to the damage we do to the earth.

In Europe, they called the Amish the Model Farmers, even as they drove them from the land. I am coming to understand what being a steward of the land really means and how radically different the Amish view of caring for the planet is from most Western civilization.

Moise came riding into my driveway this morning, which usually means he needs a ride. Moise doesn’t socialize much for the sake of it, at least not outside of his community.

Our friendship was born and nourished while riding to the bus station in Glens Falls, N.Y., and then riding there again to bring him home.

Because he can’t plow or work, we can talk. And we talk so easily and warmly with each other.

Bud pushed through the door and tried to herd the horse he saw in his yard. He was outraged. He was ignored. Nothing rattles these horses that I have seen.

Moise just got back from a trip and wanted to catch up. He said he had planted the seven blueberry bushes I dropped off on Friday. He asked if I could drive him to the bus station today for another short trip and pick him up on Monday.

I said sure.

He said I should come up and see the blueberry bushes I ordered and the planning Mosie and some of his children had done in the past day or so.

I was shocked by what he had gotten done.

I can’t imagine how he did it. There were three giant rows of sheltered watermelons and other kinds of melons and fruits. Mosie has plowed his fields by himself, pulled by two or three draft horses.

I’ve seen him plowing many times. It was – is – an unbelievable amount of work for a single person to do. And his planting skills and soil and water management are flawless.

I am just beginning to understand what the earth means to him and how that relates to his love of his children. We talked about it today and several days ago.

The Amish have been farming for five hundred years, Moise explained.

Amish agricultural practices began when the Anabaptists were driven from cities in Europe and disenfranchised in their homelands. Many were killed or imprisoned; the survivors fled to the country where their only choice was to farm and grow their own food.

Their farming skills became legendary.

The Anabaptists – the Amish and the Mennonites –  quickly gained a reputation as model farmers. When the Amish were expelled from the valleys of Sante Marie-aux-Mines in 1712, local leaders complained about the devastating economic losses their expulsion would cause.

According to John Hostetler and his terrific book Amish Society, they transformed sterile and drylands into tillable soil and created “the most beautiful pastures in the province,” said one official.

They cleared land, created meadows and pastures, and integrated cattle-raising with combined farming. They also paid their taxes, said local officials, “with utmost exactness and without compulsion.”

In the seventeenth century, the Amish revolutionized farming.

They were the first westerners to practice the rotation of crops, the stable feeding of cattle, meadow irrigation, the use of natural fertilizers, and the planting of raised clover and alfalfa as a means of restoring soil fertility.

Instead of mining the soil and moving away when it was spent, as was commonplace in European and western farming, they devised many new ways of restoring productivity.

I’ve witnessed many of these same practices Hofstetter writes about when I visit Moise’s farm; his knowledge of the soil and the land and his skill at planning and plowing is remarkable.

His has constructed an irrigation system that runs underground from a stream deep in the forest to the hillside where most of his planning is and will go.

He has studied special netting and fencing to keep birds and deer away from his crops. Farming is not just a living but a calling from God.

Soil has a deep spiritual significance for Moise and the Amish. The parables in the New Testament tell the Amish that man is the steward of an absentee landlord, who is God.

His stewardship is sacred and continuous, ending in a day of reckoning when man will be called to give an account of what he has done to the earth. If you watch the news, it’s sometimes hard not to believe that reckoning is coming and is close.

He says plowing the earth is the thing he most loves to do in life. Now, I understand why.

In the Amish faith, man has limited dominion. He has power over animals and vegetation, but the land also must receive proper toil, nourishment, and rest.

If treated violently or poorly, Moise has told me more than once, it will yield poorly, leaving the Amish and all of humanity in poverty and hunger. He owes it to his children to treat the earth lovingly and gently.

If you pay much attention to the news, you know the Amish view contrasts sharply with the so-called western world view.

In America, many elected officials still maintain climate change is a hoax; corporations see it as too expensive and profit-cutting. The land is a means for personal advancement, wealth, and progress, not a spiritual calling.

To the Amish, to damage the land is to disregard and endanger one’s own children.

I’m learning a great deal from working with Moise to search, find, buy, and ship orders for the 45 bushes coming to Moise’s farm next week.

We have peat moss and a natural vitamin mix for bushes that the Amish have been using for years. Netting and three different kinds of bushes are on the way.

Moise is a master of the soil, a steward, and a model. I’m excited to see his crops rise out of the earth and feed his family and so many others.

I never imagined planning a successful blueberry patch. I learn something from Moise every time he opens his mouth.

Wish me luck.