Sarasota has a significant Amish and Mennonite population, with the vast majority clustered around Yoder's or up the street at Troyer's Dutch Heritage (also known locally as "der Dutchman". There is also a significant Amish furniture store next door to Troyers, where the quality is very high, and the prices even higher.
I had the sugar free blueberry pie, and it was good. The picture above is self explanatory (of the tomatoes), but the farmer and the four boys painting the fence are just cutouts and therefore somewhat one dimensional. I'm told they were too busy working to stand around all day at be gawked as by "the English". If you're ever in Sarasota, drive down Bahia Vista, east of US 41, and you'll find this area, but watch out for the Amish on their bicycles and adult tricycles - they're everywhere.
Oh, about that title - this is the significant "southern" group of Amish and Mennonite families, and many of the northern Amish come here for vacations - hence the common thought that the name is a reference to beaches. Actually, it's a reference to Moses Beachy, an Amish Bishop from Somerset County, Pennsylvania, who established congregations south of the normal spread of Anabaptist Amish as most think of in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. The Beachy Amish combine the influence of Old Order Amish and Conservative Mennonite. There are 108 Beachy congregations in America, per a directory published in 2005. In fact, this group while observing most traditions, also in the mid 1950's allowed doctrine to find some accommodation to modernity - electric fans, even air conditioning units are allowed.
Every year, buses roll through Amish country up north, loaded with Florida bound vacationers. Once here, the younger ones flock to the beaches of Siesta Key. There is a lot of "what happens in Sarasota, stays in Sarasota, then the kids head back home to a much more sedate pace of life.
I looked for Harrison Ford, or the barn with his VW, but alas - his Amish were in Pennsylvania still.
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