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Herman Our Basket Maker
Amish Friends
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Herman & Mary Gingerich
Amish Basket Crafter's
Herman is one of Noah's youngest sons from his first marriage. Herman and Mary and several of their six children are just some of the Amish community that hand craft baskets for sale. One of their younger children has special needs, in Amish parlance, "not like the others."
Their special needs child, David is unable to do anything for himself. He is very sensitive and cries most of the time that he is awake. Herman and Mary are very patient and with him. He and Mary sing german songs to him and it appears to soothe him.
Due to the constant care and attention that their children require, Herman and Mary started making baskets for their income since it could be done by working out of their home. Their children range in age from 5 month to 7 years. They have a small farm with farm animals which are generally used to fulfill their personal needs.
They had a sheep that gave birth to quadruplets. Usually the births are single births or twins. Occasionally they will have triplets, but quadruplets are uncommon. The lambs were taken into the house for the first two weeks after birth. The children played with them so much. They are so cute because when you play with them they wag their tails like little puppies. The lambs are so spoiled! They run around with the kids chasing them and then the kids will turn around and chase them. It’s hard to believe that they are lambs.
Herman and Mary have a little "out building" on their property by the road that they sell their baskets from, but the road that they live on is mainly just local residents. The area they live in is about an hour from the tourist Amish Country, so they get almost no visibility unless it is word of mouth.
They also came up with some new styles of baskets. Here are a couple of them:
This is a DESK ORGANIZER:
This is a TRIPLE PIE CARRIER:
This is a PAPER TOWEL HOLDER WITH A TOP SHELF: It's hard to tell by the picture, but the paper towels go inside and the towel hangs out through the bottom. It actually goes on the wall by hanging it from the wooden backing.
This is a LAZY (SUSAN) UTENSIL OR ORGANIZER basket:
Here is a buggy that he has up for sale. It's too small for his family:
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