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| The shops |
In the hunt for good stay-cation ideas, I learned about Kitchen Kettle Village in Intercourse, PA. Literally, 35 minutes from my home in West Bradford Township. I had no idea such a super fun place was essentially in our backyard!
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| That is what we call “cookie art” |
My family arrived at 10am and found parking no problem. The girls immediately spotted the playground and pony rides, but we headed toward the shopping area first. First stop, the famous Jam & Relish Kitchen. There must have been close to 100 samples throughout the store, I was amazed! We took a few bites of delicious pickles. My middle daughter, who never likes pickles, ate about a dozen of their kosher dills! We also sampled some dessert dips, my favorite was the “Cheesecake in a Jar”, it was scrumptious! We headed toward the back of the store, the cookie section. There, for $1 a cookie, the girls could decorate their own homemade gingerbread cookie- in honor of the Kitchen Kettle Village mascot. Their creative juices were flowing and they reaped the reward when they eagerly gobbled up their tasty creations. We then taste-tested even more jams, dips, salsas, and sauces. We purchased a honey mustard grilling sauce and a raspberry preserve. It was so hard to reign ourselves in and not buy the whole store! When we walked out of this store it was as if magnets were drawing my husband in. The smells lured us into the Smokehouse where he bought some locally-cured sausages, we all sampled cheese (the buffalo sauce cheese was awesome) and we bought some locally-made hard pretzels. 
We then strolled the shops a bit more, greeted friendly pet dogs along the way, even took a picture with the Kitchen Kettle Village Gingerbread Man. Then we were ready for our AAA Buggy Rides 35 minute tour of Intercourse. We put our name on the list, which was about a 50 minute wait for our family of five, then went to the playground and pony rides just across the parking lot. There was also, which was a pleasant surprise, a petting farm where the girls got to feed the chickens, goats, llamas, and donkey. So the girls took 3 laps around the pen on the pony, played on the swings and wooden train, fed some fun animals, and then washed up and we went back over to the shops. We killed some more time in the Pepper Lane Fudge and Sweets shop. We came at the perfect time too, we got to watch the chocolate fudge be made! It smelled heavenly. I wish there was a such thing as smell-a-webpage because you would be in heaven sniffing this photo. We sampled some cooled chocolate fudge and I honestly have been thinking about it ever since!
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| Can you smell it??? |
Full from our tasty tour of the shops, we climbed onto the buggy ride at 12:15p
m. The comfortable benches and covered top along with the clickety-clack of the horses hooves provided for a very relaxing four-mile tour of the Amish country. The girls enjoyed looking at the corn fields, watching the farm animals, and feeling the breeze in their hair. My husband and I learned a lot from our driver, a Lancaster Amish man named Amos. Did you know that church services are at members homes and only meet every other week?
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| The baby enjoyed spotting animals in the pastures |
After the ride we went to The Kling House Restaurant for lunch. The restaurant is the converted home of the Kling family. I had a vegetarian sandwich that was delicious and my husband had a huge roast beef and bacon sandwich. Both of us raved about the homemade chips too. The girls enjoyed their lunches and looking at the old photos on the walls and family nick-nacks on the shelves. It was the perfect scene for our traditional “I Spy” game while waiting for our food to arrive. Though full, we couldn’t pass up the Lapp Valley Farms Ice Cream stand! The price was so good and the helpings plenty! We ordered the chocolate chip mint, strawberry, and chocolate marshmallow. They were all equally amazing! The waffle cones were fresh and incredible too! It was the prefect finale to our day. So, a nice Wet One wipe down for the ice cream coated girls and then back to the van we went.
My family can’t wait to return to Kitchen Kettle Village. When I asked them their favorite part of the day, my oldest said the buggy ride, then changed to the pony ride, and my middle daughter said everything. The baby, too young to talk, just kept saying “doggy”. I think she was a fan of the patrons who brought their friendly leashed pups. Ha! Now that we know Kitchen Kettle is open year-round and has family-focused events all the time, we will most certainly return!
VISITOR TIPS:
* The village shops open at different times throughout the year. Over the summer, it’s 9am. We arrived at 10:00am and found it very easy to park and walk around. It started to get a lot more crowded about lunch time and when we left at 2:00pm.
* The village is completely stroller friendly. Bring whatever you need. We had a sit n stand and I think that worked out well because it wasn’t too wide and was easy to maneuver. The stores were stroller friendly as well, though it didn’t feel fair to other patrons to have the clunker in there so we tended to park it outside.
* If you plan to do a buggy ride, book your tour when you first arrive at the village.
* If you eat lunch at Kling House you get a coupon with the kids meals for a gingerbread cookie at Jam & Relish Kitchen, so save that activity for after lunch and it will be free.
* If you live further and are in need of an overnight stay, there is really quaint lodging right there.
Philaburban Mom 