The noon meal at Eli and Ada Mae Shetler's Ohio farm home reminded me of ones my Aunt Blanche used to dish up to hungry threshing crews on her farm near Chatham back in the 1940s.

There was salad, home-baked bread, platters of chicken and beef, big bowls of potatoes, green beans and noodles, and pie, three kinds and with wedges so big that my offer to share one was quickly accepted.

From my vantage point at the end of a table set for 20 or more I could watch Ada Mae directing her daughters as to the feeding of this multitude, all the while attacking a big pot of spuds with a potato masher.

The Shetlers are Old Order Amish. That means their home is a little different than yours or mine. There's no electricity. The telephone is in a wooden box out beside the laneway. Farm machinery is horse-drawn, as is the buggy they use to get around.

A meal in an Amish home is included in Amish Culture Tours' six-hour excursion, which costs about $85 per person. They also do a four-hour tour, for about $60, which has the same features except for the meal.

Both begin with a visit to see Behalt, a massive, circular painting done, interestingly enough, by a Roman Catholic artist from Fonthill, Ont., Heinz Gaugel. Then it's off to the back roads of Holmes County. Located about 290 km southeast of Detroit, 460 southwest of Buffalo, it claims to have the biggest Amish settlement in the world.

We passed farmers plowing with teams of Belgian draft horses, a family picking strawberries, neat-as-a-pin white houses with clothes lines of washing (they use gas-powered wringer machines), stopped at one of the many furniture stores and cheese shops, and watched Eli Hershberger make corn brooms by hand in his roadside workshop.

Guide Lavonne Debois did her best to sort out our confusion about the Amish and their more worldly neighbours, the Mennonites, who tend to use tractors and drive cars. But not all Amish and Mennonites follow exactly the same path.

So if the horse-drawn buggy ahead of you has turn indicators, it's probably owned by a less conservative Amish family.

A self-drive tour is easily done. First, pick up a free copy of the Holmes County map and directory, available at most hotels or restaurants.

It pinpoints places to stay, shop and sample Amish /Mennonite cuisine.

Start in Berlin -- the emphasis since World War II has been on the first syllable -- head toward Walnut Creek, and follow some of the narrow, winding township roads, such as No. 366, No. 401 and No. 405.

Yoder's Amish Home is a popular stop. Gloria Yoder told me she has been welcoming visitors for 24 years.

It was mid-June, so the barn was full of new arrivals, including a Belgian colt, cages of bunnies and some yappy Beagle pups.

Two local Amish men were taking visitors on buggy rides, guides were giving tours of two homes and other helpers were selling locally hand-crafted dolls and quilts. Photo ops abound.

Just take care not to offend by photographing Amish people's faces. Holmes County looked like it was just waiting for a Hollywood film to be shot, and the Amish we encountered impressed us with their decency and genuiness.

Many have embraced tourism to an extent not seen in Southwestern Ontario, not surprising given that Holmes County receives 4.5 million visitors a year. But avoid visiting Sundays, when anything Amish is closed.

Local accommodation is mainly in B&Bs, some Amish owned, and non-chain motels such as the Carlisle Inn in Walnut Creek. Contact the Holmes County Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau at 330-674-3975 or visitamishcountry. com or e-mail info@holmes countychamber.com.