Amish Unbroken: Eye-Opening Photos Offer Rare Glimpse of the Usually Off-Limits Religious Community As They Farm the Land Through the Seasons (Photo Essay)

 

According to Hedley, the Hilty family's philosophy is to work with the land not against it, enriching the soil not stripping it

 

By Helen Pow 

With beard-cutting attacks and a reality TV hit about breaking the faith, the Amish have been painted in a negative light recently.

But an eye-opening collection of photographs has captured a thoroughly unbroken example of what it means to belong to the intriguing religious community.

Photographer Lottie Hedley visited the Hilty family on Smyrna Mills, northern Maine, near the Canadian border and her series 'Unbroken' shows Milo and Velma and their family of five hard at work sustainably and organically farming their 20 acres of land.

The Hilty's moved to what was an abandoned dairy farm in 1996, when it was covered in wild strawberries and paint-brush. Now the productive soil gives them a bumper crop of vegetables, which they sell locally and at towns including Bangor and Rockport.

An eye-opening collection of photographs has captured a thoroughly unbroken example of what it means to belong to the Amish community

Photographer Lottie Hedley visited the Hilty family on Smyrna Mills, northern Maine, near the Canadian border

Her series shows Milo and Velma and their family of five hard at work sustainably and organically farming their 20 acres of land

The Hilty's moved to what was an abandoned dairy farm in 1996, when it was covered in wild strawberries and paint-brush

'The Hilty's are down-to-earth folks,' Hedley explains on her website. 'In the spring they are down on their knees literally: hands deep in the soil planting seedlings in the soft, mellow earth. 

'Following the summer's rigorous growth and the aging of autumn is the breather offered by winter when a deep blanket of snow covers the sleeping earth in Smyrna Mills.'

She said the family's philosophy was to work with the land not against it, endevouring to enrich rather than strip the soil.

'Perhaps most importantly, the family's philosophy on farming for the future generations is according to an over-arching cycle,' she said. 'They don't want their children to have to deal with problems they've created by farming the land to excess.'

Now the productive soil gives them a bumper crop of vegetables, which they sell locally and at towns including Bangor and Rockport

'The Hilty's are down-to-earth folks,' Hedley said of the farming Amish family

She said in the spring they are down on their knees literally with their hands deep in the soil planting seedlings in the soft, mellow earth

The family sells locally and at mid-coast towns further south, Bangor and Rockport, and at their 'Back 40 Growers' farm-stand on route two, which sells the produce of eight Amish families

'Following the summer's rigorous growth and the aging of autumn is the breather offered by winter when a deep blanket of snow covers the sleeping earth in Smyrna Mills,' Hedley said

The winter gives the family a chance to reflect

Her photo series called 'Unbroken' seems to reference the reality TV hit 'Breaking Amish'

'Perhaps most importantly, the family's philosophy on farming for the future generations is according to an over-arching cycle,' Hedley said

Life in the Hilty household works in circles with food at mealtimes being passed in a clockwise circle while questions regarding the morning's bible reading come around the table in an anti-clockwise direction

In the winter, the family looks back back on the past growing season and browse through seed catalogs dreaming about future summer gardens

Read more:

Lottie hedley photography - Unbroken

http://tinyurl.com/k5s62y6