An Amish Kitchen Book Review

I was reading another book and I mentioned An Amish Kitchen by Beth Wiseman, Amy Clipston and Kelly Long at the end so I decided that I had to pick it up from the library.  I put it in on my reserve list and it came in very quickly.  I didn't really know anything about it except that the book had three authors so I read the cover and it said that there were three stories in the book from the different authors.  I was excited to try out these new authors (not that they are new writing but they are new to me reading).  The anthologies are the best way to start on a love of new book series.  

The first book was A Taste of Faith by Kelly Long and was about Fern Zook. She worked on learning from her grandmother all that she knew about healing with herbs and plants.  Fern helped many people because the doctor and the hospital were so much farther away.  In the process of helping others, she didn't make her own life so she was single without any close family but her grandmother.  She meets Abraham Fisher who is focused on farming and had not found a wife either.  The two are quickly bonded after he brought his younger sister in with a terrible sunburn.  But in order to find out what happens next you have to read the short story!

The second story was A Spoonful of Love by Amy Clipston.  This story was about Hannah King who worked to support her parents with a bed and breakfast in the main house while they lived in a small house out back.  Her father has had a stroke and needs to have help from her mother so her mother can no longer help in the bed and breakfast.  Hannah has many challenges because she is working with an older house that needs many repairs that she can't do and her brother can't spare much time because he is working on his farm with his own family.  Stephen is an Amish man who shows up at the bed and breakfast because he is escaping his life in Ohio.  Hannah's brother hires him to help at the bed and breakfast and farm.  Hannah and Stephen become good friends and their relationship grows.  I hope that you pick up this story to find out what happens.

The third story was A Recipe of Hope by Beth Wiseman.  Eve Bender has to move her family back into her parents house after a horrible storm sends a tree through her family home.  Eve, her husband and three teenage children are going to try to fit into the old ways of her parents in order to make sure that they have a roof over their heads.  After moving in, Eve realizes that her mother is much sicker then she thought with frequent shaking, forgetful behavior and more.  She tries to talk her into seeing an English doctor instead of just taking herbs from Fern (from first story) but her mother is resistant to change and wants to stay to the old ways.  At the same time, her children are getting in to big trouble over girls and sneaking out of the house.  You have to pick this one up to find out how it works out!


After reading all three stories, I am excited to check out the books from all three authors.  I enjoyed all of the authors writing styles and the characters that they introduced.  The three stories overlapped just a little with mention of the same town or characters from the other stories so it was a very well put together group of stories and hardly had you remembering that it was written by different authors.  The best thing is that with the short stories, you can sit and read them anywhere and they tend to go by quickly because each story is short.  It is a great summer read and I read most of it at the pool!!!  In case you are interested, there is also a big chapter of recipes at the end!!  Hope that you pick up this book and check out some new authors that you might not have read before.  Let me know what you think of it!