Whimsical Amish Folk Art
This painting uses the Julius Sturges Pretzel Bakery located in Lititz, Pennsylvania, as a backdrop for this whimsical image.
The Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery in Lititz Pennsylvania has a rich history as the first commercial pretzel bakery in America with the building built in 1784. The sturdy stone house was built from stones dug from the street itself and timber hewed from the surrounding forest. The home has musket firing windows in the cellar to ward off attacks from Native Americans, while the interior included beautifully carved wooden panels on the staircase, heavy wooden doors on iron strap hinges, and plank pegged floors. The Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1850, Julius Sturgis owned a bread business in Lititz. That year, he provided a homeless man with dinner. According to legend, the homeless man had been on a train that went behind the bread business and got off the train after seeing the bakery to get food and a job. Julius did not have a job available, but nonetheless fed the man. The man in return gave Julius a pretzel recipe. Julius had never baked pretzels before, so he tested the recipe out on his family and then added pretzels to his bakery. By 1861 the recipe had proven to be so popular that Julius stopped his bakery to make pretzels thus, starting the first commercial pretzel business in the United States.
The inspiration behind the image of the Amish woman on a skateboard being pulled by a running cow comes from teaching my children to ski and snowboard by being pulled behind an ATV. Our family owned a country property with a log cabin and a nice amount of acreage. Winter has especially fond memories of the family playing in the snow and warm fires inside the 1775 log building home. What fun we had but of course, Amish would not have ATVs to pull themselves. However, an abundance of livestock and a skateboard would fit the bill nicely. Interestingly, many Amish seeing this painting shared their youth experiences of being pulled by cows!