APPLE DUMPLINGS AND APPLE butter. Shoofly, pecan, and pumpkin pies. Platters piled high with fried chicken, roast beef, and homemade bread. Soft pretzels fresh from the oven.

For those of us who travel on our stomachs, vacation memories in Pennsylvania Dutch Country weigh heavily--and I do mean weigh--on scrumptious baked goods and home-style meals. Bring a hearty appetite and be ready to nibble and nosh at any time. Flitting from town to town one day, I did so much sampling--much of it free--that I totally forgot about lunch.

With food playing such a major role in the life of the hard-working Amish and Mennonites--and such a drawing card for tourists--eating and sightseeing converge in this colorful patchwork of towns and rolling farmland in southeast Pennsylvania. Lancaster County is America's oldest Amish community and second largest after Holmes County, Ohio.

In a rural area being encroached by subdivisions and shopping centers, the Amish and Mennonites (Anabaptist religious sects who came from Germany in the 1700s) hold on to their customs, living in peace with God and their neighbors despite the distractions of modern life. The Amish (more tradition-bound than the Mennonites) do without conveniences like cars and electricity, and few have telephones. You'll see them in horse buggies and plowing their fields with mules. When necessary, the Amish will ride in a car or truck if an "English" (non-Amish) person drives.