A drive through Southern Maryland’s Amish Community reveals a shopping adventure chock-full of culture and scenery, not to mention handmade furniture and quilts—even a fresh guinea hen or two.

At the end of a rutted buggy lane in St. Mary’s County, amid an enclave of clapboard farmhouses and weathered barns, a barefoot, 8-year-old Amish girl wearing a white bonnet and blue muslin dress cautiously approaches my car and asks what I want.

“Are there guinea hens for sale?” I ask, as advertised on the handmade sign posted back on the main road. I’m in luck. The price: $6 each.

But as I take out my wallet the kid tosses a glitch. On weekdays, there is no caldron of boiling water at the ready, no way to begin the plucking and dressing process. (This was not the time, I thought, to teach myself a handy farm skill back in my condo in D.C.)

“You come back Saturday,” she says. And sure enough, when I return a few days later, she personally chooses a plump hen, and in short order it’s ready to pop into the iced cooler in my trunk. That night, a delicious, roasted guinea
hen is the centerpiece of a terrific farm-to-table meal.

At Amish-owned farms, along the winding roads that snake through gorgeous fields of corn and tobacco near Charlotte Hall, I always find great shopping adventure. There’s no point in planning a menu. I can’t call ahead. The more than 350, low-profile farming families, who moved to the area in the early 1940s from Pennsylvania, enjoy a simple way of life without iPhones or land lines. They sell a variety of goods they grow or make by hand, but there is no guarantee that what they publicize is available.

The quest requires a slow drive down Route 236 (between Route 5 and Route 234) and a sharp eye for the dozens of signs, often scrawled on a piece of cardboard or wood, signaling that “butter,” “eggs,” “bedding plants,” “quilts,” and more are for sale. You take your chances. The family may have hitched up the buggy and gone to town. The last duck of the day may have been sold. But after five or six farm stops, I’m never disappointed by the bounty available, and at every farm and store, I learn a bit more about the Amish way of life.

The best place to kick off a shopping tour is at the North St. Mary’s County Farmers Market (daily, except Sunday, April through December), where a dozen Amish farmers sell seasonal produce and baked goods. They set up shop in a series of white tents beneath a glade of tall pines that together provide both shelter and a serene setting.

“The gingerbread is phenomenal,” a shopper tells me as I browse the long tables filled with appealing pies, breads, and cookies made by the “plain” people who sit in silence nearby. They appear aloof, but ask a question, and they are ready with information about their own goods and their neighbors.

The flour-dusted dinner rolls are a certain purchase, and something called “hummingbird bread” (made with bananas, pineapple, and walnuts) sounds intriguing. But I first grab a favorite, a bag of fresh-baked, nutty, crunchy, and not-too-sweet oatmeal cookies. Into the car they go, along with jars of pickled beets, rhubarb preserves, elderberry jam, and sweet relish.

On another early morning, there are plenty of Asian eggplants, greenhouse-raised tomatoes, wax beans, onions, potatoes, and mustard greens at prices far below farmers markets closer to the city. The best discovery is tiny jars filled with soft, fresh, golden bee pollen that has the flavor of orange blossom. “Sprinkle it on your cereal,” the farmer tells me.

Minutes later, I’m happily munching cookies and heading down 6-mile-long Route 236, spying signs for “birdhouses,” “rabbits,” and “pigeons,” passing fields where farmers work with teams of horses and windmills provide power. At a farm down Dixie Lyon Road, I buy an enormous bouquet of zinnia, cock’s comb, and lisianthus and then double back to check out a farm that offers “barbecued pork.” (No one is home.) For the most part, farms selling dairy products—eggs, cheese, and butter—are easy to locate.

Free-range chickens, like guinea hens, are best found on Saturdays. (Poultry and rabbit are exempt from the Federal Meat Inspection Act for on-farm sales.) A favorite stop is Locust Grove Dry Goods, a charming, old-fashioned variety store that stocks the basic necessities of a self-reliant life. With no electric lights, it’s dim inside Locust. Neatly arranged on shelves are kerosene lanterns, dark-colored fabrics in deep blue and marsh green, and art supplies—ink blocks, papers, and colored pencils—for making greeting cards, a favorite Amish pastime. Here’s where to find pumice soap.Last summer, the owner (a woman of few words who prefers not to give her name) enlarged the housewares department, adding tabletop china, which is displayed alongside a nice selection of apple peelers, food mills, and strainers. When she noticed my interest in the American-made Rada cutlery she says, unexpectedly: “A lot of your people like them, too.”

Those in the market for hand-crafted dining chairs, tables, and bedroom sets will find opportunities at Yoder’s Furniture Shop, where adorable rocking horses and good-looking cutting boards are also made and sold at reasonable prices. The shop sells eggs, if they have them, for $1.50 a dozen. Best of all is the display of wooden trucks of every sort—fire engines and cement mixers—beautifully constructed from oak, maple, walnut, birch, poplar, and cherry wood. Part of a family collection, unfortunately, they are not for sale.

The Amish enjoy making hand-stitched, patchwork quilts, and two dozen or more can be found at The Quilt Shop, a tiny store that also sells quilted potholders and placemats. “The women and girls, they can make a quilt a week,” says the owner, an elderly gentleman who explains that each pattern has a name, such as “moon glow,” “double wedding ring,” and “tumbling blocks.” His exceptional, family-made quilts, in modern, traditional, and folk art styles, range from $700 to $900.

For quilters in these parts, the most exciting day of the year is the annual Amish Quilt Auction, held each year on an Amish farm on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. “For quilts, you can’t beat that, you’ll see everything,” says The Quilt Shop owner. “People come from all over.”

And well, they should. The St. Mary’s County Amish community has much to offer. I know of no other place in the region where you can find everything from yummy bee pollen to handmade quilts to a succulent guinea hen or even delicately flavored pigeon, fresh from the barnyard.

Walter Nicholls is a former reporter for The Washington Post.

Most Amish businesses are open in daylight hours but many do not have set hours of operation. All are closed Sundays. It’s wise to have a cooler with ice packs in the trunk for perishables.

North St. Mary’s County Farmers Market

Seasonal fruit, vegetables, baked goods, honey, and jams. 37600 New Market Turner Road, Charlotte Hall, 301-475-4200, ext. 1402. Open: Mondays through Saturdays, 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Locust Valley Dry GoodsM

Poplin fabrics, art supplies, kitchenware, eggs, butter, and jams. 9830 N. Ryceville Road,Mechanicsville Open: Mondays through Thursdays, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

The Quilt Shop

Handmade quilts, placemats, and pot holders. 28635 Thompson Corner Road, Mechanicsville

Stolzfus Flowers

Field-grown cut flowers. 36723 Dixie Lyon Road, Mechanicsville

Yoder’s Furniture

Dining and bedroom furniture, children’s toys, and cutting boards. 9439 N. Ryceville Road, Mechanicsville

Amish Quilt Auction

The annual event is held the Saturday before Thanksgiving. 301-475-4200, ext. 1404

Information: St. Mary’s County Welcome Center, 37575 Charlotte Hall Road, Charlotte Hall, 301-327-9023, stmarysmd.com/tourism