Busy Amish farm wife-mother-writer Lovina Eicher rose at 3:15 a.m. to see husband Joe off to his factory job. She was back up at 5 a.m., canning chicken meat between checking on 9-year-old Benjamin's fever.

Then it was time to make breakfast for her brood of eight ages 14 to 3. The menu: scrambled eggs and toast, with a grilled cheese for Ben as a treat. The schoolchildren off, Eicher resumed canning chicken and keeping an eye on Ben and preschoolers Lovina and Kevin.

Now it's mid-morning, and Eicher is squeezing in a interview between washing dishes and tutoring her firstborn. Elizabeth, 14, opted to be home-schooled and she's hard-pressed "to keep up with her," her mother admits with pride. But Elizabeth can watch the little ones while her mother's on the phone.

The phone? Yes, laughs Eicher, member of the Old Order Amish and "Amish Cook" columnist, whose weekly column in The Times foodFare section is a reader favorite. Though the Amish eschew modern conveniences, some strike a compromise with technology as long as it doesn't disrupt the rhythms of faith and family. So she and Joe had a phone for outgoing calls installed in a shed on their 10-acre farm in rural south Michigan.

"I like it," says Eicher, 37, with a smile. "If I have to call the doctor, I don't have too far to go. My nearest neighbor is a mile away."

Well, that's a matter of opinion. To fans, Eicher -- making a rare public appearance Saturday to sign copies of "The Amish Cook at Home" at Border's Books in Merrillville -- is a friend and neighbor as close as the newspaper. Edited by Kevin Williams, coauthor of her new cookbook, the "Amish Cook" column is syndicated by Oasis to The Times and some 120 other papers nationwide.

Eicher's homespun reports of Amish life -- quilting, making dandelion jelly, canning 20 quarts of beets -- could be lifted from a pioneer diary. Only stray tidbits -- like how Joe surprised her with a Dairy Queen cake for her birthday -- remind that the Amish and 21st-century worlds sometimes overlap.

Some fans have even tracked her down. Eicher, gregarious one-on-one, cherishes anonymity. "I'm not out there to be a celebrity," she said. "I don't know if everyone in our community realizes I write it. I don't talk about it."

Eicher's seven siblings nudged her to continue the column after their mother's death. The feisty Elizabeth Coblentz and Williams founded the column in 1991. Though she declined to be photographed according to Amish tradition, Coblentz had no objection to sharing recipes and anecdotes about her ultra-private culture. She died in 2002 during a publicity tour for her book "The Amish Cook: Recollections and Recipes from an Old Order Amish Family."

Her daughter is as open, writing easily about Amish milestones (weddings, births and funerals) and the simple rhythms of family life and faith. Like her mother, she writes her columns long-hand, mailing them to Williams in Ohio. She prefers to write predawn, after Joe leaves for work (many Amish men supplement their incomes with outside jobs now). After all, days are busy.

"People come out and say, 'With all the children running around, how do you stay so calm?' I guess it just seems to work out," she says.

"There are some days when I get rush-y and have a lot of work, I start getting upset, because I think I have to do more. Joe always says, 'Stop, it's not going to run away,' " she chuckles.

She and Williams teamed up to cowrite "At Home" last year, with Eicher sending recipes by letter, then dictating them by phone when Williams pressed her for exact measurements. Here their cultures clashed; Amish cooking hinges on tradition, "by texture, by feel," Eicher says. She gave in, measuring out ingredients in standard cups and teaspoons and is now happy she obliged. "Now my girls can do it without me standing beside them," she said.

Divided by seasons,"the lushly illustrated book is a window into Amish life, with recipes for corn pudding and rhubarb cobbler interwoven with essays, prayers and photos of Eicher's hands picking tomatoes and beets and her children's hands playing with wooden toys. She teased Joe into contributing an essay on fatherhood. "I said I do all the work, he can do a little," she jokes.

Her one wish: that her mother had lived to see the cookbook, a sequel to her book. "I think I've read Mom's book two of three times," she says softly. "It helps me when I get lonesome for her."

Cheesy chicken chowder

1 onion, chopped

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup diced potatoes

1 cup diced celery

4 cups water

5 cups diced cooked chicken

4 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

1 cup shredded Cheddar or mozzarella cheese

1 teaspoon salt

* Combine the vegetables and water in a soup pot and bring to a boil; reduce the heat to medium and cook until soft, about 20 minutes. Add the chicken and butter. Stir in the flour, then gradually stir in the milk. Add the cheese and salt and stir until the cheese is melted. Spoon into bowls and serve.

Serves 4 to 6

Apple Crisp

5 large apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (6 cups)

1 cup granulated sugar

Topping:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, slightly softened

1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1-1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

* Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-by-13-inch pan.

* Put the apple slices in the pan and sprinkle with the granulated sugar. Gently toss with your fingers to mix.

* To make the topping: Combine the butter, cinnamon, oats, brown sugar and flour in a medium bowl and mix with your fingertips until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Spoon evenly over the apples. Bake until golden brown, about 45 minutes.

Serves 4 to 6

PUMPKIN BREAD

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cups homemade pumpkin puree or 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree

4 large eggs, beaten

2/3 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup pecans, chopped

* Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-by-13-inch loaf pans. Knock out the excess flour.

* Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir with a whisk to blend. Stir in the pumpkin, eggs, water, oil and pecans. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour.

Makes 2 loaves.

All recipes from "The Amish Cook at Home: Simple Pleasures of Food, Family, and Faith" (Andrews McMeel, $29.99) by Lovina Eicher and Kevin Williams