Amish Country – Mechanicsville, MD

This weekend, I had the chance to visit the Amish community in Mechanicsville, MD. I went to school in St. Mary’s county, so I am used to seeing horse and buggies sharing the road with cars. I’ve been to plenty of Amish markets but never out to the actual farm.

If you head down Thompson Corner road, you’ll begin to see hand painted signs on both sides of the road indicating what is for sale. The interesting thing is that some of the signs are in Spanish.

According to Amish America, this area is a daughter settlement of Lancaster County, Pa. The Amish settled here in the 1940’s because of the consolidation of schools and a longer school year.

We were on a quest for a pig for roasting, and my research had led us to this particular stretch of road in St. Mary’s County. We found the sign advertising pigs so we headed down the small road.

The first thing we saw was a farm on the left hand side. We pulled into the driveway and asked the man who lived there where we could purchase a pig. He was very friendly, and pointed us in the right direction. He also let us know he was selling watermelon, cheese, and chickens. We bought a watermelon (they were huge!) and a pound of cheese. He said the chickens come either alive or dressed (cleaned). I’d be interested in coming back and getting some chickens to roast.

We headed to the next house down to place our order for a pig. We pulled up to the house and spoke with the man standing out front. We told him we were looking for a pig to roast, and he asked if we wanted it alive or cleaned. He then asked what size we wanted. We asked for a 10-15 pound pig. You then write down your order in a notebook with your contact information and when you want to pick it up. I noticed a few other orders in the notebook. One guy was ordering a 180 pound hog, another guy was ordering a goat and a lamb. I am really excited to see how this turns out.

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Butler’s Orchard

This weekend, my girlfriend and I checked out Butler’s Orchard to get some berries and corn on the cob. It’s located right off of 270 in Germantown, MD.

We headed into the market to see where to go to pick blackberries. The woman suggested we grab a plastic bag and head out to the orchard. You get in your car and follow the signs guiding you to different parts of the orchard. You can pick strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. You can dig your own potatoes or pick your own flowers. We drove up to the blackberry patch and parked right in front.

The blackberries were delicious. The place was not too crowded and you had plenty of room to move around and get as many blackberries as you’d like. We headed back to the market to pay. At the market, we bought Chesapeake Bay Cheddar (made with Old Bay), corn on the cob, basil, and two fruit smoothies (made with strawberries).

This is a great place to come pick some berries and grab some produce from the market.

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