The Georgia Amish migrated from Virginia to the Montezuma, Georgia area in 1953. Since then, the original 15 to 20 families have blossomed to 100 families, supporting three churches. Though the Montezuma Amish Mennonite meetinghouses welcome visitors to their services, visitors are required to submit a formal request through their website (see Resources).
This bed and breakfast, in the heart of Georgia’s Mennonite Community, is owned and operated by Crist and Edna Yoder, descendants of the original Georgia families. According to the Yoder’s website, the two-story home sits on a 250-acre dairy farm “surrounded by green fields, lush crops and tranquil sunsets.” The home was built in the early 1950s with help from members of the newly established community in the Amish tradition of home “frolicking.”
The White House Farm
Box 1679 Mennonite Church Road
Montezuma, GA, 31063
Phone: 478 472-7942 (Home)
Yoder’s Deitch House Restaurant features distinctive Amish cooking in an Amish farmland setting. Country-fried steak, shredded beef, ham and meatloaf are among the specialties here. To the left of the restaurant is Yoder’s Gift Shop. Among the shop’s offerings are chow-chow, pepper jelly and Skinner’s vaporizing salve. It also has a wide variety of home-style jams made with sugar instead of the supermarket-style high-fructose corn syrup. Two of Crist and Edna’s nine children, Michael and Benjamin Yoder, manage the restaurant and gift shop.
Yoder’s Deitch House Restaurant
3 miles east of Montezuma at 5252 State Route 26
Phone: 478-472-2024 or 478-472-2024
During strawberry season, usually April and May, Kaufman’s Strawberry Farm is open to visitors. There you can pick fresh strawberries on a real, working Amish farm. Don’t expect to see horse-drawn plows at Kauffman’s, though. Unlike their Brethren up north, Georgia’s Amish have no proscriptions against using modern farming and transportation contrivances like tractors and cars. To get to Kauffman's Strawberry Farm from The White House Farm, turn left at the stop sign onto Mennonite Church Road and go west a half mile. Turn left at the stop sign onto Mennonite Church Road and go west 0.5 mile
A little over a mile from Kauffman’s Farm is the Mennonite School. According to principal Pete Whitt, the children of the community receive a Bible-based education that includes a regular curriculum of math, history and geography. At the end of eighth grade, the children continue their studies at home. For the visitor, the Mennonite school’s size and the kids’ old-fashioned dress provide perhaps the starkest contrast between the Amish lifestyle and the outside world, or as the Amish call it “the English.” To get to the Mennonite School: continue west a bit over a mile from Kaufmann's. Just before the stop sign, turn left onto the dirt road (not the main road). This is Mennonite Church Road. Go south until it ends at a stop sign. Turn left at the stop sign onto Mennonite School Road. This will take you past the Mennonite School.
