A Trip to the PA Dutch Amish Market

In Annapolis, which is just across the river from SERC, there's a PA Dutch Market run by the Amish of Pennsylvania. They come every weekend to sell a variety of things. I've already been to Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, which has some Amish stalls, but this one was different in a few ways, yet just as fascinating!

When one walks in, there's several large spaces for each area of the market, which each sells different things. Each section is set up in a unique fashion. This picture is of the middle area with a bakery selling pies, cakes, cookies, many kinds of breads, and other desserts.

There's also a small restaurant to the left, but I'm not sure if you can see it in this photograph. It was surprisingly busy. I'm sure there are locals who make a whole morning out of going the Amish Market to purchase all their groceries (because you truly could by any food you need here), and then stay for lunch.

It's a ham and cheese log!
The Amish of Pennsylvania are famous for their soft pretzels. There was a stall selling these famous hand made pretzels. I'd had some difficultly with making pancakes this morning, so I stopped by for a bite to eat. Not only was there normal pretzels, but also savory filled ones. I got a pretzel filled with ham and cheese, apparently called a ham and cheese log, it was delicious! And I saw them making some on the side of stall. The pretzel dough is rolled out into small strips, a wedge of cheese and a large slice of ham is placed at one end, then the dough is rolled, and put in the oven. After a few minutes, they come out golden brown with melted cheese and warm ham! They are freshly wrapped in foil and served. Scrumptious!

One of my favourite areas was the sweet stall of course! I love sweets! Look at all those chocolates and truffles of almost every variety. There was walls and walls of all kinds of sweets and chocolates. I think you could name almost any common candy and many more obscure kinds, and you could find it somewhere on one of the many shelves here.  Licorice is one of my weak spots, I have regular cravings for it. I found a lovely bag of it at the Amish Market, and I can tell you it all was all gone by the end of the day. Though I did not eat all of it by  myself, my house mates had some too.




 I also found a giant lollipop, I didn't get one because I could never eat a whole one. But look at how big it is, almost as large as my face! Yet just seeing one made me smile! 
So of course I struck a pose with the giant circle of molded sugar and food colouring! 

I saved my two favourite things in the market for last! Firstly, Chocolate Covered Bacon! The combination of two delicious things has got to be at least twice as good as each individually! That's simple math. Chocolate by itself is fabulous, especially white chocolate drizzled on milk chocolate. Then if you add bacon, it becomes a heavenly item.


Secondly, sprinkles!
So many types of sprinkles. This aisle is one of the first you see when you enter the complex, the butcher shop is on the right and this area is on the left. All of those stacks represents a different type of sprinkle! Who knew there were so many! It's amazing! There was all kinds of seasonal sprinkles from Christmas to Valentine's to summertime to Halloween, as well as fancy decorative metallic coloured sprinkle balls, and miniature animals. Apparently sprinkles last up to three years, so they can all be sold year round. I was absolutely awestruck! And those tubes on the bottom shelf are pie fillings: key lime, cinnamon apple, vanilla, mocha, chocolate, etc. Amazing!

The largest message I took back from the Amish Market is if you can dream it, you can probably find it at the Amish Market in Annapolis! It is a fabulous place, and definitely work the trip if you are ever in this part of the country. And the best part is that the Amish make almost everything by hand, so you know it's fresh and natural!