Amish Table Talk gives visitors authentic taste of Amish life

Once upon a time, when LaVonne DeBois first took people on tours of Amish Country, it was on an eight-seat bus. With no air conditioning. When in Rome …

That was in 1991, when DeBois offered one-hour tours of the Der Bake Oven in Berlin. Fast-forward nearly 35 years, and what once was Buggy Trail Tours has evolved into Amish Table Talk, which offers a variety of tours ranging from three to four hours and covering such subjects as “A Day in the Life of an Amish Homemaker” and “Tipping the Glass Wine Tour." They now launch from the Berlin Grande Hotel (which does not book the tours), some in high style in full-size motorcoaches.

“Our tours aren’t just about driving around on backroads,” DeBois said. “They’re about the moments in between, meeting my Amish friends along the route and stopping to say hello, visiting Amish craftsmen in their workshop, coming upon an Amish wedding, watching farmers in the fields or sitting at a table with an Amish couple sharing a great home-cooked meal over conversation. It provides a deeper understanding of how the culture works despite all the changes taking place and how Amish adapt in their own way to those changes.”

True to her company name, one of the requests DeBois gets most frequently is for table talks with an Amish family. There are four local families that will welcome small groups and have a sit-down meal for them in their homes.

Guests get authentic fare, including homemade bread, peanut butter spread, salad with homemade dressings, fried chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes, noodles, cooked vegetables and assorted pies. Along with engaging in pleasant conversation, guests have options to take a farm tour, buggy ride or tour a schoolhouse after their meal.

“We also are fortunate to have homes capable of serving up to 55 people for our motorcoach groups,” DeBois said.

DeBois said the best thing about the tours is the chance for visitors to get close-up looks at Amish craftsmanship. Things seen on tours include seeing a buggy maker shaping custom buggies by hand; hearing stories from a local woodcarver who transforms plain wood into landscapes; discovering an old-world art, such as broom-making; or meeting Amish basket weavers who still live without running water.

Folks come from all over to take the tours. DeBois said she has had guests from Italy, Russia, Germany, Switzerland and Korea, to name a few, plus many stages.

“Holmes County has a way of drawing people in from all over the world,” DeBois said. “Regardless (of where they are from), I hear them say, ‘There’s no place like Holmes.’”

In a bit of an oddity, DeBois said the Amish are almost lost on Holmes County residents, kind of like the Goodyear Blimp is to folks from Akron or alligators to residents of South Carolina. When you see something all the time, you start to not notice it anymore.

“It is easy to take for granted when we live in and around it day to day,” DeBois said. “It makes me realize what we have when visitors express their interest and share their comments on what they observe. Many baby boomer visitors remark on how they grew up in similar ways. What changed is the fact we changed along with the change.”

DeBois has seen plenty of change during her time in business. And the more things change, the more they stay the same.

You can still get on one of the smaller buses, just like the old days. DeBois offers leisure travel tours for two to 10 people using her van, just like the old days.

With air conditioning, of course.