Inside/Outside State College is a monthly column by Jeff Deitrich offering views on downtown and the outdoors within a 30-minute driving distance.
Do you know of a little stand near State College where a person can buy tasty treats, flowers or vegetables on the honor system? I’d like to know of such places. I’d known about one all my life until recently.
My mother passed away on July 23. She “operated” one of those honor system stands that you hear about from time to time.
You know, the little old lady who puts out flower arrangements or sells pies or vegetables along the road, most often with no one in attendance to monitor whether the right amount is paid – or any amount at all. A stand like the one Chris Arbutina wrote about in the Centre Daily Times on June 4, 2012 that described the joys of finding treats in a blue cooler along a roadside in Zion with no one there to witness whether you paid or not.
It turns out that Chris was writing about my mom’s stand. I was fortunate enough to introduce Chris to my mom at Grange Fair a few years later, and they shared smiles and laughs.
Her name was Martha Deitrich, and her stand was ripe with so many goods over the years that it’s completely impossible to list them all. She lived in Zion just 20 minutes from downtown, and I know quite a few people who traveled down Nittany Valley specifically to get one of her coconut cream or pecan pies, sticky buns, apple dumplings or a wide variety of cookies.
Oh, and then there were the pickles. And the vegetables. And the strawberries. And the flower arrangements. And the pumpkins. And the corn shocks. The list goes on for miles.
I learned something that I never realized about my mom two years ago when Karen Walker wrote about her in The Centre County Gazette. What I learned makes me emotional, because it exemplifies just who my mom was.
The first time Martha put something at her stand to sell, it was a flower arrangement. She didn’t know what price was right and chose 50 cents. Someone bought it, and she was thrilled.
That was more than 50 years ago, and she still charged 50 cents when Karen wrote the article in 2023. And the day that she passed. She was in her garden that very morning tending to her vegetables and flowers at age 93.
Her family has been putting out her last harvest at the stand since that time. She had planted so much that the harvest continues even now.
I’ve asked a number of people since then whether they know of similar stands near State College. I have learned of a few, though I’m sure they are more out there.
One is on Purdue Mountain Road near Bellefonte where eggs are on offer. Another is Beiler Bees off Route 45 east of Centre Hall, where they sell honey. In downtown Centre Hall, there is Betty’s Bouquets – an enclosed white stand with big red lettering. Very nice. Another Bettie of Betties Bakery in Rebersburg is intending to start a stand soon but for now takes orders for many fabulous pies, cookies, breads and whoopie pies. I also spied the Dutch Hutch on Route 26 in Pleasant Gap. It purports to have produce and flowers available.
The most complete of all the new stands I’ve found is Wascott Fields and Farm – a delightful pay-on-your-own spot less than a mile back Williams Road off Route 45. Turn just before you get to the Earlystown Diner in Centre Hall. They have a prolific amount of juicy looking produce and a wide variety of it. Just slip your payment in the slot and off you go!
I’d like to find other stands like my mom’s and those above, so I ask for your help, dear readers. Email me at psumohs@yahoo.com or comment under StateCollege.com’s Facebook post about this story with notes on where to find other stands and what you might find there. I’m sure other readers will appreciate knowing about them, too. No need to know who the operators are.
The people who run them bring joy into the lives of so many people. Often they do receive thanks when someone stops by at the right time to catch them at their stands, or when a person has the interest to go and knock on the door.
My mom loved so many of those conversations and met so many people that way. But most often she never met the people who bought something at her stand and never received thanks directly.
Still, it was adorable watching her peer through her front window and exclaiming, “Oh, someone’s at my stand! I wonder what they’re getting?” In her last decade or two, a scoliosis had her so bent over and to one side that peering through the lower inches of her window was about all she could do. Yet there she was nearly every day, looking out that window or working in her garden that measured about a 75 feet square – just for the vegetables.
She had multiple flower gardens, berry and nut bush patches, and a few fruit and nut trees.
In addition to finding other stands like hers, I want to take a moment to say thank you wholeheartedly to the people who run them. They deserve it. And I can tell you this: they love it when you leave a little note of thanks behind for them – or a little extra tip for what are surely underpriced goods compared to the stores.
Take an extra moment to stop in. Take an extra effort to leave a note. Take the extra generosity to leave a tip.
These folks deserve it. Though that’s not the reason they do it.
Thank you, mom, for doing it in such a wonderful way.
Jeff Deitrich is a retired hotelier and outdoors writer living in State College. He welcomes comments at psumohs@yahoo.com.
