With the big PA Day party approaching, I’ve begun gathering up some homegrown snack foods. The problem is going to be knowing when to stop! Pennsylvania turns out to be a veritable cornucopia of sweet and salty treats.
As a big potato producer, it’s a given that we’ve got some makers of delicious potato chips in the greatest state ever. There’s Herr’s in Nottingham, who produce 23 different varieties of potato chips as well as pretzels, cheese curls, popcorn, tortilla chips, and pork rinds.
Utz in Hanover has a similarly broad range of products, including many flavors of potato chips, pretzels, corn chips, cheese puffs, popcorn, party mixes, pork rinds (does the GSE have a special love of the pork rinds, or do we ship those out, I wonder?) and their new line of multigrain chips.
Snyder of Berlin has been around for an impressive 200 years, and the factory is still located next to the Croner family farm, where much of the potato growing magic happens. Not only do these folks supply us with the potato chips and pretzels, they also make dips for a complete snacking experience.
Snyders of Hanover brings us a bounty of pretzels and chips. And like most of the PA salty-snack producers they are branching out into organic products. To those of us concerned about getting our salty fats in as eco-friendly a way possible, PA manufacturers are the way to go!
Now, I don’t know about you guys, but after I scarf down a bag of chips I feel a little over-salted and need to counteract that with something very high in sugar. Luckily for me, the great state of Pennsylvania gives me countless options for restoring my salty-sweet balance.
As the Easter holiday draws near, who hasn’t given in to those neon colored marshmallow chicks that dominate the seasonal candy section of the supermarket? I feel like you can’t go wrong with sugar coated sugar. Marshmallow Peeps are made at Just Born in Bethlehem. Of course, as Just Born reminds us, there are now Peeps for all seasons. You can even join the Peeps Fan Club, which I know because I became a member several years ago, and have the ID card and Peeps baseball cap to prove it. We can also thank Just Born for sticky movie theater floors: they also make Mike and Ike and Hot Tamale candies.
And who hasn’t heard of Hershey chocolates? Hershey products include not only Kisses, but also Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Twizzlers, KitKats, Almond Joy, Milk Duds, and more. Pennsylvania is also home to many smaller family-owned candy businesses like Gardners in Tyrone and Wilbur Chocolate in Lititz. Wilbur is the place to go if you want that decadent chocolate fountain at your wedding reception. My mom still gets me chocolate bunnies from Andy’s Candies who are located in Bulger, in western PA. They are so small they don’t have a website, but their chocolate is delicious.
Of course there are many more PA snack products than I can possibly list here; suffice to say that we are definitely lucky to be throwing PA holiday parties in a state that is brimming over with so many tasty things.
