Customers Have to Pull a Rope for Service at This Tiny Amish Farm Stand (22 Photos)

That little beige building in the photo below is West View Acres. It’s a charming Amish-run farm stand located in Springs, Pennsylvania.

This is in the venerable Somerset County Amish community. It’s the country’s second-oldest, where the Amish have lived for over 250 years.

And on my recent visit here, I was reminded how the Amish retail experience can be a throwback to another time. Especially at these little at-home businesses.

And no small part of that has to do with how you get the owner’s attention 🙂 More on that in a minute.

Like many of its kind, this stand features produce, as well as baked goods and canned items.

Such stands are pretty common in Amish communities, and this one was similar to many others I’d been in: a nice seasonal selection (this was December, so for fresh produce mainly apples were in stock), some homemade items, and everything at reasonable prices.

They also had butter and raw milk. Bring your own container, and get the milk cheaper.

And a cooler for brown eggs. I think $3.50 a dozen is not a bad price.

A look at the solid canned goods section:

A jar of sweet dill pickles, made from seven ingredients.

“Pull Rope For Service”

As is often the case at these smaller Amish roadside stands, there was no one to be found on the premises.

So after making my selection, and still finding myself there alone, I noticed this little sign on the front counter:

Sounds good to me. But just where is the rope?

Exiting the stand, I turned towards the house, and spotted it:

The house porch and entry is right near by, so they should hear this…

A couple solid tugs and I heard a satisfying ring. But did anyone else hear it? I went back inside the stand to wait.

After a minute or two had passed, an Amish girl appeared through this door. She greeted me pleasantly and proceeded to take payment.

I ended up leaving with a package of peanut butter chocolate chipper cookies. They were good!

Cookies were $4.75 per dozen, and they had several varieties, including chocolate crinkle and molasses.

Now, technically I didn’t really need to pull the bell rope in this case. The stand provides for a third option:

This honor system-based way of paying is another common feature in Amish roadside stands. But if you need change, you will need to get ahold of someone, hence the rope.

I confess I didn’t really need change either. I just wanted to test out the rope 🙂

It was worth it, and I enjoyed exchanging a few words with the girl running the stand (I often like to ask for recommendations of other Amish stores to visit) before heading on down the road to my next stop.

If you happen to visit Somerset County’s Amish settlement (it is a bit off the beaten path), there are a number of such Amish-run places worth stopping in at. The address for this one is:

West View Acres
685 Springs Road
Springs, PA 15562

Like all Amish businesses, they will be closed Sunday.

Nice place to visit for cookies and other tasty things – and for a retail experience that you don’t get much of nowadays in the modern world.

So I hope you enjoyed that little visit. For my experience at a bakery and variety store in this same community, check out this 28-photo look at Peachey’s Country Store.

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