Pennsylvania's Mennonites know how to make money: by capitalizing on trends | Gene Marks

The close-knit group that shuns modern technology has adapted to the changing world by selling what the people want: sticky buns and cappuccino

Those of us who live in the Philadelphia area are used to occasionally seeing "old world" people around. They dress in 19th-century clothing, drive around in horse and buggies and generally keep themselves separate from the rest of the general population.

They're mostly known as Amish, but there are many related sects. One of these are Mennonites - a close-knit, 500-plus-year-old Christian group that shuns modern technology, wears straw hats and calico dresses and embraces a simple lifestyle that adheres closely to its centuries-old doctrines of worship, religious faith and pacifism. The Mennonites are good, God-fearing people. Oh, and they also know how to make a buck.