Harvest Lane Farm Market

By Kevin Williams

Harvest Lane Farm Market: When I was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania last month, as I headed to return my rental car, I passed a small farm market and thought I'd stop in to check it out.  It wasn't an Amish-run farm market and, in some ways, I was disappointed.  I mean, if you are in Lancaster County and there are a gazillion Amish farm markets to choose from, why stop here?  But, as I quickly found out, they have a wonderful selection of goodies and while the market isn't Amish-run, there are some Plain employees there.   And, geez, I found out later that Martha Stewart stopped here last year to buy some produce for her show.   Now out of all the places to stop around here to get produce, Martha Stewart picked here?  I'd say that is a pretty hearty endorsement.  So if you are in the area and are looking for some wonderful produce and baked goods made in the scratch Plain tradition, Harvest Lane is worth checking out.

Here are some photos from my visit:

Harvest Lane is located at 851 E Oregon Rd, in Lititz, PA, not far from the Lancaster airport.

Homemade blackberry crumb pie was just one of the many wonderful-looking baked goods they had for sale.

Plenty of locally sourced fresh meat for sale.

Wonderful-looking button mushrooms

Going bananas over the produce!

This is a little about the market's origins: Harvest Lane Farm is a 4th generation family farm in Lancaster County, PA, farming prime agricultural soils that have produced abundantly for many years. Our Grandfather, Ira D. Landis, purchased the farm in 1939. In 1956, my parents, Jacob and Rachel Stahl, began farming and for many years raised tomatoes for the cannery and produced eggs and beef on the farm.

The Martha Stewart visit information was a little sparse, but an article in Penn Live described it at the time:

 Martha Stewart was seen shopping at about 9:30 a.m. at the  Harvest Lane Farm Market at 851 E. Oregon Road in Lititz, according to manager Kristofer Bucher. She told an employee that she was buying local produce -- which included sweet corn, onions, tomatoes and a few canned goods -- for a live demonstration on her Facebook page tomorrow.

Pretty cool that she was out shopping, I just sort of assumed she had assistants to do that.  Anyway, definitely worth checking out Harvest Lane!