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The Amish Flea Market Every Pennsylvanian Needs To Explore At Least Once
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Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Not Your Average Bucket List by OnlyInYourState. We’ve taken some time off from new episodes. Have you missed us?
What better way to welcome back our audience than with an episode dedicated to the Amish community in Pennsylvania, specifically Green Dragon Farmers Market? Thanks to our article titled “The Amish Flea Market Every Pennsylvanian Needs To Explore At Least Once,” we are able to take a look at one of the largest and most historic flea markets in the Keystone State. Plus, we also dig into the history of farmers' markets in the United States, which might surprise you.
Let’s dive in…
Things we’ll cover in this episode:
- What makes the Green Dragon Farmers Market so special?
- What is the history of the Amish community in Pennsylvania?
- How long have farmers' markets been around?
Get In Touch!
If you have personal experiences with any of the above attractions, call or text 805-298-1420! We’d love to hear your thoughts on these places and maybe even share your clip on the show! You can also reach out to us via email at [email protected].
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Transcript
Introduction & Theme Overview
00:00:06
Speaker
This is Not Your Average Bucket List by Only In Your State, a podcast about exploring the hidden gems right in your own backyard. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Not Your Average Bucket List by Only In Your State. I am here once again with my co-host, Sarah. Hi, Sarah. Hello, Marissa. How are you? I'm doing very well. How are you? Fantastic.
Seasonal Market Excitement
00:00:33
Speaker
It is farmer's market and flea market season and that makes me very happy. I do love that. I love that little transition, although here in Florida, it's farmer's market all season long. They should put that at the top of the billboards of welcome to Florida, farmer's market year round. Yeah, actually crazy
Florida's Heat Impact
00:00:54
Speaker
enough. I think it's supposed to get up to 98 this week.
00:00:58
Speaker
Uh, here it was yesterday was like 94 real feel 113. Holy. Who wants to do that? Not me. How do you deal with that? Like walking outside. I know you're more of a heat person. I get that, but it's still, that still seems suffocating, especially with the humidity. Like, yeah. How, how is that?
00:01:18
Speaker
Well, for starters, all my grass is dead, which makes me really, really, really upset because I take pride in my lawn care abilities and it's all dead. So that, for starters, has made me extremely sad. But also on top of that, it's just it's sweltering, which nobody wants to do that. Like that, in my opinion, that's not fun unless you're at the beach. And even then, it's really not fun. But I played pickleball with my my dad yesterday and
00:01:48
Speaker
I almost died. Sounds like it. Unless you're going at midnight. A little midnight pickle.
00:01:57
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah, what about you? What's the weather like in Ohio right now? So it is finally getting a little gorgeous out. We had some storms, which was fine. No major tornado damage or anything, but so it's a little bit claggy and muggy out, which is okay, but like 70s. So like, hmm, outside in anything, pretty nice. Sweat shirt weather.
00:02:20
Speaker
Oh my God, if I could just live in 65 to 75 year round, that would be perfect. But everywhere you can, it is very expensive.
00:02:33
Speaker
I wonder why. That's true. We keep running into that problem, yes. But so we've taken some time off from new episodes. Have you missed recording? Have you missed our conversations? Oh my God, yes. OK. Yeah, no, absolutely. I've missed recording. I've been looking forward to our next episodes. And I feel like I just bring us up in casual conversations because I'm so excited to talk about, especially if we're referencing cryptids or pronunciations.
00:03:03
Speaker
And my struggles. Yeah, it's great. How about you? Yeah, I really have missed it. I do, you know, like I was traveling for a little bit. I took some time off and somehow whenever I meet new people, only in your state is always dropped in the convo, especially with people that, you know, are from the States, even people in Canada, because, you know, they come down and visit.
00:03:27
Speaker
And I'm always just like, well, have you heard of Only In Your State? Have you visited before? They're like, no, what's that? And I have to break it down. And
Concept of 'Only In Your State'
00:03:34
Speaker
then I'll mention the podcast and what we do. But, you know, it's always fun, like when you travel yourself and you meet new people and then you get to kind of like let them in on, you know, not just our work, but also just like what we do on a day to day and, you know, helping discover new places and stuff like that. And I think it's really cool.
00:03:56
Speaker
Yeah, I actually, I was talking about the podcast with a friend, my friend Autumn, which I told her I would shout her out because I always talk about Autumn. Hey Autumn.
00:04:12
Speaker
But I always love talking to her about the podcast and about Only New State because her parents, her dad especially, are just giant fans, which I think is so wholesome. He's like, yeah, he gets only in Ohio and only in Pennsylvania, whatever, and they love reading about it. I just love talking to people who they're familiar with the brand.
00:04:33
Speaker
especially if they have parents or family members who love the brand. They're like, oh my God, my mom or cousin or brother or whatever gets your emails or follows your Facebook page. And I don't know. It just makes me nerd out a little bit. So I appreciate that. Yeah. Brightening my day.
00:04:49
Speaker
I do feel like sometimes, too, I get a little defensive when I ask people, you know, like, have you heard of only in your state? And they say no. And I'm like, wait, what? Why not? How have you not? Which, yeah, step up. Very presumptuous of me that everybody has heard of us. But well, before it before it's all over, they're going to. Yes. Before what's all over? I don't know. Are we talking apocalypse?
00:05:19
Speaker
Yeah, I'm always thinking about one eye on the apocalypse, the podcast. Oh, man.
Green Dragon Farmer's Market Spotlight
00:05:27
Speaker
Well, with that segue, what better way to welcome back our audience than with this episode today that we are dedicating to the Amish community in Pennsylvania, more specifically Green Dragon Farmer's Market.
00:05:43
Speaker
And the title of this article, The Amish Flea Market, Every Pennsylvanian Needs to Explore at Least Once. And I would argue every United States citizen, because not only is it well known in Pennsylvania, but this is a giant farmer's market. And I love their signage because they are blaring one of the best farmer's markets in the United States according to
00:06:06
Speaker
some publication that I forget the name of at present, but they've gotten major awards. There you go. Which is very important. I feel like, yes, you need a good claim to fame to draw some people in. Plus, all in your state wrote about it. I know, yes. Shout out to Beth Price Williams, who is the author of this article. Speaking of Pennsylvania, I just wanted to give a little nod to your sweatshirt.
00:06:34
Speaker
a little cryptid Pennsylvania squonk for anybody that's been a repeat listener. For every listener that knows who squonk is, please drop us a comment or message us because it's just going to delight me. Do you want to give an intro to who squonk is, Marissa?
00:06:55
Speaker
We had a season that was based all about local lore and legends. I do feel like somehow, Sarah, we bring the squonk into every episode no matter what season we're in. The squonk is this little cryptid that I don't know how it just caught our attention and stuck with us because it's a crying pig-like creature that is just sad and
00:07:22
Speaker
thinks it's ugly and just cries and then like disappears in the forest.
00:07:27
Speaker
Yes. I think there's been a resurgence of the squonk, Heather from Small Town Monsters. We had an interview with her. This is a cryptozoology group. Apparently, there's a festival called Squonkapalooza in Pennsylvania, which, oh my gosh, I need to see when that is. Anyway, it's a Pennsylvania cryptid rep in Pennsylvania. Maybe you'll see the squonk on your way to the green dragon farmer's market. Who knows?
00:07:52
Speaker
Maybe they'll be squawking plushies there. Not to get into it, but given the amount of vendors, you might see some. Just saying. That's true. Yes. Excellent point. Speaking of the amount of vendors in this farmer's market, this place is huge, first and foremost. It's in Efrada, right? Sure. Efrada, Pennsylvania. The thing about this farmer's market, which I found very unique, is that it's only open on Fridays.
00:08:22
Speaker
Yes, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. all holidays unless Christmas falls on a Friday. So it's there for when you need it.
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah, yes. And year round, too, this does not stop. This is year round every Friday. And people are probably asking, why the heck are you talking about this farmer's market in Pennsylvania? Why is this so big that we're dedicating an entire podcast episode to it? And I think a lot of it has to do with the Amish community in Pennsylvania.
00:08:58
Speaker
And I think Pennsylvania is home to one of the largest and oldest Amish communities in the entire country. And this flea market has become super popular with the community, but also, which we'll get into later, people commenting on our Facebook posts saying they'll drive an hour and a half just to get there, because it's so cool.
00:09:18
Speaker
Yes, and if you're not familiar with the Amish community, I grew up around it because some of the Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish kind of bled over into Ohio, but basically this community dates back to 16th century Reformation in Europe, and it's basically the Anabaptist movements for the creation of these plain community, the Amish, the Mennonites, and the Brethren, and basically they
00:09:44
Speaker
escaped Europe for persecution and made a home in the Americas. So basically in the early 18th century, they came over here for their Anabaptist beliefs and the Pennsylvania Amish community in Lancaster County is the oldest and largest Amish community in the United States. And so just to give you a brief overview, you might have seen them in like pop culture, media, whatever. I'm usually dressed very plain. Humility is a core component of their community.
00:10:09
Speaker
And they make a really good furniture, by the way. So that's my spiel on the Amish, if you're not familiar. Yeah. I grew up near Lancaster, actually. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, in New Jersey. And we would go every once in a while. Again, yes, great furniture.
00:10:31
Speaker
It's like the community itself is very much renowned for, like you said, kind of minimalist humility, but also agriculture is really big. Craftsmanship is huge. They focus on a lot of traditional values within their community, but then also just operating small family farms or using
Navigating Amish Areas
00:10:55
Speaker
horse-drawn equipment is a big thing in the Amish community.
00:10:59
Speaker
Speaking of which, I, not to segue into a side story, but I'm gonna, I stayed at an Airbnb out in Berlin, Ohio the last year, and which I love. It was adorable, got to middle of Amish country, but those horse-drawn buggies driving around them is so stressful because you don't want to spook the horses. I'm sure they're trained. You want to make sure that everyone's okay. You don't want to pass them, but you need to pass them. It's a whole level of stress that I forget exists.
00:11:28
Speaker
Yes, going very slow, slow at their own pace. But yeah, so Green Dragon Farmer's Market, you'll find a lot of really cool stuff here. You mentioned vendors, do you know exactly how many vendors there are?
00:11:48
Speaker
Did you come across that ad chance? Gosh, I do not know. Let me look. So I have the interactive map up. And I would say over 100. Cool. And they have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven buildings, a farm plaza, a tower village, and lower and upper end. So there are giant sections to this place. So you want to book the whole day in order to go through all these vendors. Yes.
00:12:18
Speaker
Also, it should be noted this is one of the largest farmers market in Pennsylvania itself, so that's another big draw for people. You're going to find a lot of, obviously we talked about the Amish community, we talked about craftsmanship, furniture, stuff like that, but you have fresh produce, you're going to have meats, you're going to have baked goods, antiques.
00:12:41
Speaker
A lot of people just kind of showcasing their own personal craftsmanship, which I think is neat. Yeah. So what's your go-to stall when you hit up a farmer's market or a flea market? What are you looking for? Oh, probably pickles.
00:12:57
Speaker
Oh, you big into pickles. Okay, like specialty like horseradish and I don't know all the above. Yes. I love pickles. I love how crazy people can get with pickles. Flavor wise. I love making my own pickles.
00:13:13
Speaker
Wow. What about you? You tried and tried pickle girl. All right. Pickle girl. I do love pickles. Any kind of little treat, little snack, little cheeses or pastries, anything like that. Love myself a good preserve, like hot pepper jelly. Oh yes. Apple butter. Yes.
00:13:36
Speaker
Any kind of like pouch or leather good or anything like that that I know I'm gonna use in my day-to-day life Love picking those up at farmers markets because that's no easy feat to create like You know some of these bags like whether they're crocheted or leather or whatever So and I just love talking to the people there like understanding their craft how they got into it You know, what's their favorite thing to make? It's it's so fun to just chat people up
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah, I do. I agree. And I love that, you know, the simplicity of certain communities, especially the Amish community, you know, just that it's just a completely different way of life that, you know, just simple living, which is something that I, you know, try to incorporate in my day to day, but a lot harder than you think. But also harder than you think. Churning butter takes a long time. Have you tried?
00:14:30
Speaker
Yes. Well, I don't, I just recently discovered this isn't like a wide thing, widely done thing, but whenever I was like in first grade, we turned butter. Did you not turn butter? For like what? The teachers to sell or just like, it was like a, it was a scam.
00:14:51
Speaker
No, I think it must have been like a science class or something. I don't remember, but they gave us cream and a small little mason jar and just had us shake it for a long time and made butter. Wow, very cool. Then you got to try it after? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think I would up my butter game today and get one of those little mini hand churns and the buttermilk and do all the stuff. Interesting.
00:15:17
Speaker
Yeah, I've never tried to churn butter. I mean, you probably can't churn vegan butter, but... That's probably true. Nice pun. 24 hours later, I'm like, why isn't this solidifying?
00:15:33
Speaker
Yeah. Wow. Cool. I do love, first of all, stuff like that, you know, going to a market and finding homemade butter or like you said, homemade cheeses and stuff. I do find that so unique or breads. I mean, gosh, breads are another great one. Like, yeah. Homemade bread, man.
00:15:52
Speaker
I mean, honestly, what you should do, get to a farmer's market, go to the green dragon farmer's market and get some
Livestock Auctions at Green Dragon
00:16:01
Speaker
bread, get maybe a little spread or a pickle to go on it and just wander and just bite off. That's heaven, really. That sounds great to me.
00:16:10
Speaker
Oh, man. Oh, and also, if you're not interested in just the flea market, farmer's market, there are also auctions for livestock, furniture, hay, if you're into the agricultural business. But I think it would break my heart to see the livestock auctions because I know that they're probably going for a different reason than I would be. Yeah, true. I would be coming home with cows galore. I know. They just look so sad. No place to put them.
00:16:38
Speaker
No, there's plenty of farmland in Florida. I learned it's one of the leading states for the bovine industry, right? Cattle? Really? I thought so. Interesting. In addition to maybe California and Texas. I don't know. Don't quote me on that. My brother might've been lying to me. He would. He's like, yeah, this is a great tidbit for your podcast. I swear it's true. I'm not going to fact check it. It's fine.
00:17:04
Speaker
So yeah, so rounding out this article, also I saw Beth Price Williams added a photo of pretzels too, which would be on my list. Homemade pretzels? Yes, please. But also, yeah, the furniture sale, they said, specifically the first Friday of every month at 6 PM, huge furniture sale.
Market Cash Tips
00:17:28
Speaker
And so for anybody who loves furniture, head out for that.
00:17:32
Speaker
Yeah. And then, yeah, so basically bring cash is what they're saying. Need to know, bring some cash. There are two ATMs on site though, so if you don't have cash, you can get it there.
00:17:43
Speaker
Yeah, and so segueing into our, we post every episode on our Facebook page for Only In, and we asked people, do you have any personal stories about Green Dragon Farmer's Market? And I was surprised at some of the responses. It was very nostalgic in that comment section. Yes. Yes. It's like everyone in Pennsylvania had a childhood story about the Green Dragon Farmer's Market.
00:18:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. What were some of your favorites? Besides just ignoring these weird Boston Terrier spam comments that I keep seeing weird, but we're not joining your Boston Terrier group. Did you have any favorite comments about the market?
00:18:28
Speaker
Similarly to you, I love to see the people who are like, yes, I'm going to drive from New Jersey. We would drive hours for this. It was a common staple. My grandparents love this place. People just seemed very passionate about a farmer's market, which is, I don't know why that's surprising to me, but it was. How about you?
00:18:47
Speaker
Yeah, there was a little conversation in the comments where someone posted Kim. She said her father had a cookware stand for over 30 years. He loved the Amish and Mennonite people. She has a lot of memories of seeing her dad there. And then somebody said, was he, quote, the kettle man across the aisle from a restaurant? I love it. Yeah, it was like just this whole
00:19:14
Speaker
Yes, the Kettle Man. Yeah, I just I just thought that was like such a unique, you know, because connecting people in our comment section, you know. And I was I was trolling through the reviews on their Facebook as well, the Green Dragons Facebook. And I saw people shouting out. I don't know if it's still there because these are some older comments. But Rachel's diner, I saw I got some shout outs about being great food. But I have to assume that within the farmer's market, there's probably really, really good food and the Kettle Man. Yeah.
00:19:44
Speaker
But so many, loads of people saying just how amazing the produce is, both for price and quality. So I feel like you just got to get the biggest shopping bags possible and just, oh my gosh.
00:19:58
Speaker
Yeah. I also love to go to places, buy their shopping bags as like a little souvenir treat. And then, you know, like tote
History of Green Dragon Market
00:20:06
Speaker
bags and stuff. Yeah. Like hit up some vendors for some tote bags. Yeah. Yeah. I think, um, you know, this market, which
00:20:16
Speaker
I don't know if we mentioned this, but it dates back to the early 1930s, right? This market has been around for a very, very long time. Yes. Because even someone in the comments section was saying back in the 50s, they were talking about this man that made brooms and sold them at Green Dragon. I just think, what a cool
00:20:37
Speaker
you know, market to kind of last all of these decades be probably a great source of just, you know, income for certain communities just to sell things that they're good at making, you know?
00:20:54
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, it ties the communities together. Like you said, it was Noah Burkholder founded it in 1932. It wasn't the same business at that point or even called the same thing, but it went through being a garage or a repair shop, and then it was a tavern called Shrek's, not spelled the way you want it to be, but that's okay.
00:21:14
Speaker
And then has since evolved into the Green Dragon farmers market, which I learned that they picked the name literally because the owner was on vacation, saw a restaurant called the Green Dragon. They're like, I like that. Wow. Yeah. Interesting. And speaking of bringing communities together, it kind of made me think too about farmers market and the farmers markets in the US and like really where they got their start because I feel like it's such like I have to plan of going to this weekend and it's such like, hmm.
00:21:42
Speaker
I feel like it's becoming more and more popular over the decades. And I don't know if that's just me just being biased, but I was looking into it. So they started in North America in the 1600s. So European settlers brought that tradition over with them. And one of the first recorded markets was the Boston Market, not the restaurant, in 1634. And then I think they started to spread out from that and the Philadelphia Market being one of the earliest too.
00:22:08
Speaker
And so basically it was just like a great combination of places for people in rural communities to come and bring their goods, and then places people in urban communities getting fresh stuff, produce, you know, meats and all that. So it was a really mutually beneficial arrangement for both communities. But then in the 50s with the evolution
Evolution of Farmer's Markets
00:22:29
Speaker
of roads, high speed transportation, preservatives, and kind of like that microwave and TV culture, I kind of died off. But then,
00:22:37
Speaker
they started to make a comeback in the 70s. And I think just people wanted to get better produce. They wanted to establish communities and just support each other. And now there are over allegedly 8,000 farmer's markets in the US and probably more if they're not registered with whatever directory that they're counting from. So I just think that's fascinating. I know I love them. I'm going to go get little goodies and treats. And yeah.
00:23:04
Speaker
Yeah, I do. Yeah, I think that's really fascinating that they have this sort of resurgence to where you can go and find seasonal ingredients that, you know, because I guess just like
00:23:22
Speaker
People assume that you can just get any sort of produce year round and that it's going to be available because that's kind of what supermarkets do for us now. Yes. But that's not really the case. Vegetables, fruits, they have seasonality to them and I think that's what's cool about going to the farmers market during different times throughout the year is because you'll have this chance to get produce that maybe you won't
00:23:46
Speaker
get, you know, any other time. And that's fun for me is I love finding something I've never cooked with before and being like, okay, how do I make this into something tasty?
00:23:59
Speaker
and also grabbing some pickles. I love supporting local shopping small and being able to support the business community where I live. I think that's great for farmers markets because you get a lot of small farms makers and all that bringing their stuff to the markets.
Local vs. Big Farm Benefits
00:24:17
Speaker
You know, I'm, I'm not vegan, but I don't necessarily like eating meat from big meat farms. So if I'm going to consume something, I much rather have it from a local farm where I know that it's not in bad conditions and it's not overproduced. They're healthy. Um, mainly I just buy too many eggs. Um, where I should probably just have chickens, but you know, I just can't, I just can't get to the point where I know those chickens are going to stop laying. What do you do with them then? Am I just going to have a thousand chickens?
00:24:47
Speaker
Could be worse, I don't know. Yeah, it's a great place to support your local community too. Yeah, agreed there.
00:24:58
Speaker
Yeah, so that pretty much wraps up our fun episode on Green Dragon Farmer's Market. We touched on the Amish community in Pennsylvania. Sarah gave a great history on farmer's markets, which I had no idea dated back to, wow, 1600s. Yeah, anything else you want to add about any of these topics? Look up Squanka Palooza, so that way you can support your local Squank.
00:25:32
Speaker
Only In Your State is an award-winning travel publisher that uncovers hidden gems and local favorites across the US. They have a presence in all 50 states with a passionate following of fellow travelers looking to get out and explore. Head on over to onlyinyourstate.com to find the best attractions in your backyard and beyond.