Our Amish neighbors, Moise and Barbara Miller, and their family have also transformed our neighborhood and possibly our village. They have dazzled everyone with their energy, enterprise, and creativity. Moise is building an empire of love, community,  restoration, and food.

He has brought a dying old farm to life and has a dozen things up for sale – vegetables, chairs, cookies, jam, corn, woodwork, sheds, cookies, and jam, all made by his family and on his farm.

For all their mystery, the Amish are a model and a guide for those of us who want to be more self-sufficient, healthy, and respectful of the land beneath us.

Every week, Moise unveils something new. A few weeks ago, it was goats and horse leather; this week, it’s strawberries. The girls on the hill have been picking them up for days, and it is not simple or easy work.

Last Spring, Maria and I went over to the Miller’s to help Moise design a “for sale” sign that was modest but clear. We offered him the use of the land just outside of our North pasture so people driving up our road would have some warning that their food shed was only a quarter mile up the road on the right.

People who know them well have a saying about the Amish: “Always Friendly, But Never Friends…” There is some truth to that. Their community is very tightly internal, secretive, and even xenophobic, and they quite understandably (to me) watch and see almost all of us as greedy, angry, lonely, and tech ensnares people struggling with our lives.

I don’t wish to be in their community, but I have learned much from them about self-sufficiency and how to live meaningfully and well. Moise and I are friends, not the Budweiser buddy kind of friends you see on TV, but friends nonetheless.

I am happy to host a sign for his strawberries. They are big, fat, and delicious; may he sell every single one.

Maria designed the sign, and we all figured out the wording and did some painting. Moise put it away in his barn until this weekend when his fresh and delicious strawberries were sold for $6.00 per box. Good neighbors are important.