What’s really different about Berks County? What sets it apart? What do people who have moved here — the transplants — say about the culture? What was hard to adjust to? What is lovable?
Transplants are eager to talk about living in Berks. They want to share what was challenging for them, to tell what’s been confusing, funny and definitely endearing about their adopted home. From pretzels to the Pagoda, they agree on a number of cultural aspects that make our county truly unique.
Food
Transplants agree that food is a big deal in Berks County. Whether you are a businessperson, a college dean, or a smalltime chair of a small committee at your church, you can’t expect to motivate folks merely by making inspirational speeches. For the one-two punch to get things done around here, you’ll be far more successful by adding, “Refreshments will be served.”
Certain items definitely rise to the top of conversation among transplants.
Pretzels and chips. Who knew there was such a big difference between pretzels? Indeed, pretzels are one of the top culturally significant foods in Berks. Kella Blaylock is still not sure what to make of it. “When I moved here from Virginia, my friend — from Berks — told me, ‘The best pretzels in the world are made here.’ She had me go down to Bell Alley…” Kella was expecting a fancy, light-filled factory, but instead found the small, un-fancy, rustic hot pretzel cottage industry that natives have loved for the very fact that it never changes; the flavor and texture are always reliably satisfying. A Bell Alley pretzel is, after all, distinctly different from a Unique Splits or a Tom Sturgis or a Faller’s. And though transplants can never attain the high degree of pretzel expertise that natives have achieved (perhaps genetically, by now), most agree that it’s a cool feature.
Similarly, Berks Countians are discriminating when it comes to the potato chip. They’ll drive miles out into the countryside to buy chips fresh at Dieffenbach’s Factory Outlet. They’ll spend long minutes in Redner’s chip aisle trying to decide if their party would be best with the Good’s, the Herr’s, or Utz. (Forget about Cape Cod or Lay’s chips. Those are clearly not local and, as such, not worth buying — except if there’s a discount involved. Any sort of coupon or discount holds a special place in Berksian hearts.)
Red beets and filling. Transplant Debi Grosch, Visit Coordinator at Albright College’s Office of Admissions, says the food aspect fascinates her. It can be both confusing and funny. “I eat beets, but here, people eat red beets,” she says.
To prove the point, another interviewee tried an experiment, telling an elderly aunt, “I just love beets.” The aunt murmured back in assent, “Red beets. Yes, I love red beets, too.”
“I make stuffing for my turkey,” Debi continues, “not filling. My chicken pot pie comes with a top and bottom pie crust and has no noodles! My individual chocolate cakes with icing between two of them are called gobs, not whoopee pie. And I had never tasted shoo-fly pie before coming here.”
All the transplants mentioned filling. For those uninitiated readers, filling = not bread stuffing, the kind that goes in a turkey, but a side dish made with potatoes and celery and ingredients that are “clearly magical” as one transplant wife says, “based on the reverence it receives. And filling is delicious.” Even Berks County transplant Senator Judy Schwank has developed a filling recipe that she serves at family gatherings.
Other foods of note: sandwiches, especially cheesesteaks (Berks Countians insist theirs are far superior to Philly cheesesteaks); scrapple (not unlike its close cousin down South, known as livermush); and Icy Tea by Clover Farms. Kella calls this drink “an addiction—they are hooked on it.” But this obsession just doesn’t match up in taste to sweet tea brewed Southern-style, she says. Fastnachts, ring bologna, “anything made with pigs,” and — a more recent feature — good Mexican food are on a long list of specialties noticed by newcomers.
photo by Nicole Mathis, Blu’ Orchid Photography
Favorite Places
Location, location. “One of the best things about Berks is its location. You can get to the Poconos, Philadelphia, New York City within a couple of hours,” says Tammy Lamb, owner/stylist of Apropos Hair Studio in Shillington.
All the transplants seem to agree on this point. Rita Fredericks, an entrepreneur, travel agency owner, and longtime transplant, explains, “I do feel like Berks County is centrally located. It’s accessible to Philly, D.C., New York, etc., but unlike living in those cities, you also have the greenery to come home to. It’s not all brick and mortar.”
The best of city and country. Says Rita, “I like to see deer, squirrels, chipmunks and a lot of nature. We have that. You go a short distance from the urban part and you have the farms and can go riding in the countryside. When I was growing up [in the Easton area], my dad would, after church, go for Sunday country drives – we’d see Amish buggies…I got used to it. So when my kids were growing up, I’d do that with them, here in Berks. It reminds me of my father. Now my grandkids do it.”
Mayleene DeFreece, a realtor, also mentioned the joy of having city and country nearby: “You can shop small businesses or large malls, tour large farms or wineries, and it's all within minutes of each other.”
Psychology professor Justin Couchman, a recent transplant, says, “There’s tons of city stuff — all the restaurants and shops you’d want. Like Say Cheese! restaurant. The cheese platter served on the piece of slate — they write the name of the cheese in chalk. Wow.” Justin loves taking his dog, Blue, for romps at “all the green spaces around Berks,” including Antietam Lake and Bernhardt’s Reservoir.
The Pagoda. Justin also finds Mount Penn and especially the Pagoda in Reading “definitely unusual.” He admits, “I didn’t know what it was for, but it’s pretty looking. Whenever anyone comes to visit, I take people up there to see the view.” That confession alone probably bodes well for his assimilation, considering everyone does that — especially transplants.
Mayleene says, “I have personally grown quite a love for the Pagoda. With my past background in structural engineering and my fondness for art, I think the Pagoda is an amazing icon for the area and, in my mind, can become a larger tourist attraction.”
photo by Nicole Mathis, Blu’ Orchid Photography
Best of Show
The Fairgrounds Farmer’s Market. Berks prides itself on offering fresh, inexpensive foodstuffs, and while everyone loves the farmer’s markets from Kutztown (Renninger’s) to Shillington to the roadside stands in Fleetwood, Topton, and beyond, no single market is more transplant-praiseworthy than the Farmer’s Market at the Fairgrounds in Reading.
“The first time I went, I was so impressed I spent the entire day there,” says Kella, laughing. Justin was similarly astonished: “I’m from upstate New York, and we have roadside stands. But this was like a big warehouse, filled with all these shops, and Amish, and lunch, and groceries, and shoofly pie!
I tried it for the first time, and it was great.”
Jazz Fest. In Rita’s estimation, the musical bent of Berks ranks highest. “Every single year the Berks Jazz Fest is one of the things I look forward to the most,” she says passionately. “My friends come in for Jazz Fest, and we’ve met people from all over the world.” She’ll be volunteering at the festival again this year, running March 28-April 6.
