WILLARD – Apple Creek Amish Market and bulk food outlet, located at 875 N. Main St. in Willard, is similar to stores in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania where the Amish lifestyle is more prominent.
There are no Amish communities in Cache Valley but there are a few Mennonite communities in Northern Utah and Southern Idaho.
Amish is a break off from the Mennonites. There are about a dozen Amish communities in Montana and that is what the Willard store is fashioned after.
Greg and Rachelle Arlint own a grocery store in St. Ignatius, MT. It’s an Amish community and they decided to bring some Amish goods to Willard in the fall of 2012.
Store Manager Kristina Penfold said she wasn’t sure why they picked Willard for the store, but it has been a positive thing for the community.
The store is stocked with several different ciders made from fruit and berries as well as hundreds of different candies.
“We have people come from St. George and from Idaho Falls visit our store,” she said. “We stock Amish products including furniture, household goods in addition to their grocery items.”
The store buys a lot of bulk food in 20-to-30-pound packages then divides it into smaller packages to sell.
“We sell a lot of candies, spices, salsa besides our Amish goods. We get some merchandise from the west coast,” Penfold said. “We also have furniture, wind chimes and other goods that attract our shoppers.”
The store gets most of their merchandise from the Midwest and Pennsylvania, she said.
“Our local vendors are growing in number. They bring in their foods and other goods in and we sell them here,” Penfold said. “We experiment to see if the public likes the stuff and, if it sells, we continue to stock it.”
The store has 10 local vendors with lathers, lotions, skin care, grass fed glow, pain relievers, bee butter, pain relief and other concoctions. They also have an outside vendor that brought in a variety of straw hats to sell.
“People asked if they could sell their stuff here and if it fits the genre of our store, we are happy to try it,” she said. “I think the most popular area is the deli with fresh cheese and meats they slice every day.”
A good summer treat is their Aggie Ice Cream. They scoop their servings into cups from gallon containers.
The market is as unique as the people it is named after; it represents old fashioned goodness, and a place people can find foods that are chemical free and preservative free.
“Our popularity is growing. Customers will drive long distances to get their favorite items,” Penfold said. “We run on a minimal staff of 12 employees and none of us are Amish.”
Apple Creek is the only Amish store in Utah, she said. The closest one to it was in Salmon, ID but it burned to the ground last year and everything was lost.
“The biggest complement we get is when people come into the store and tell us it reminds them of other Amish stores they have been to in other places,” she said. “And they tell us our store feels the same.”