A Taste of Mennonite Culture at Sauders Store in Seneca Falls, NY

You know how you hear about something for the first time, and then it suddenly keeps popping up in conversation?

That’s what happened with Sauders Store. After the third mention within 10 days, I decided it was time to check out this Mennonite grocery store in Seneca Falls.

It was a perfect excuse for a solo drive on a sunny spring day.

I know, grocery shopping doesn’t sound like the most “self care” kind of thing to do with your free time (in fact, this article makes the point well that it’s not).

In this case, it was less about the groceries and more about exploring something new–with a taste of that pre-kid luxury of stopping whenever and wherever I wanted along the way to take some photos of the landscape, visit a Mennonite plant nursery, and have a picnic break overlooking Cayuga Lake.

Maybe it’s the food anthropologist in me, but I love browsing grocery stores to see what people in other areas or countries like to buy. And Sauders definitely has a Mennonite flavor to it.

You’ll also find all the grocery basics there, so Sauders country store is both a convenient place for a regular shopping haul and an interesting destination to visit and maybe pick up some regional gifts or a few snacks for a picnic (more on that below).

What is Sauders Store?

So, what sets Sauders market apart from, say, the nearby ALDI?

For one, it’s a family-owned business that was started in 1978 by John Sauder Sr., a Mennonite who had moved here from the Lancaster, PA area. (If like me you’re curious about Mennonites in the Finger Lakes, see the last section below for some more information.)

Over the past decades, it’s kept growing, so the current location is already the fourth iteration, and they added 39,000 square feet in the most recent expansion in 2015.

Walking into Sauders, I got a bit of a rustic feeling, thanks to a wooden balcony running along one inside wall and quilts hanging over the railing.

There are all the aisles you’d expect from a grocery store with distinct subsections, among them produce, a Swiss Deli, the Dutch Bakery, Grandma Sauders Candy Shack, and a cafe.

A whole corner is taken up by a bookstore with Bibles and religious items but also local farmhouse-style cookbooks, wooden toys, soaps, cards, calendars etc. I almost wished I had my kids there just to see the puzzle aisle, and they would also have enjoyed the two walls of children’s books with such classics as the Little House series, various Curious George adventures, Little Golden Books, and Mennonite-themed coloring books.

It’s all very wholesome, including the incredibly friendly staff that seems to consist mostly of young Mennonite women wearing bonnets.

Right next door there’s an Amish and Mennonite furniture store that also belongs to the family.

Shopping at Sauders grocery store

The food at Sauders is an interesting mix. They have a fair number of regional, homemade, specialty or natural options but also your usual bananas and Dole pineapples and many meat or baking products with ingredients I generally avoid (artificial food coloring, nitrites).

The egg section is a good example: I saw only standard chicken eggs, nothing organic, but if you’ve ever wanted to try local, farm-raised duck eggs, here’s your chance!

So read your labels if you care about these things.

Personally, I had a lot of fun with the Dutch Bakery. Lots of breads and sweets to choose from: brownies, cakes, cinnamon buns, pumpkin whoopie pie. And that plate-sized baked Boston cream doughnut meant serious business. Everything felt very affordable, including the personal size shoofly pie (aka molasses crumb pie; $2.49) and the aptly named sticky buns ($4.79 for 6) I took home.

If you’d rather do your own baking, head to the baking aisle for large prepackaged bulk bags of standard and specialty (nut, sprouted, rice) flours, mixes (yeast-raised donut, biscuit and scone, sugar cookies, buckwheat pancake…), and grains. Plus, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many flavor extracts and sprinkle colors in one place.

And then there’s the meat. So many sausages! So, so much bacon!

Be warned that if you’re visiting with children you may want to have a strategy in place for Grandma Sauders Chandy Shack. Who can resist gummy candy in just about any shape under the sun, all the things (nuts, coffee beans, malt balls, dried fruit…) covered in chocolate, and the six shelf sections of pretzels dipped in chocolate and yogurt in various colors?!

Country Cookin’ Cafe

After all that shopping, I treated myself to lunch at the in-house cafe. The portions are generous and the BLT I ordered had perfectly crisp bacon and was extra good after I added some Sauders red pepper relish from the condiment station.

Some other options include large subs, fries, handmade sweet or savory pretzels, soups, pie slices, and ice cream. Again, prices felt fair.

If you’d rather eat outside the store, consider putting together a picnic instead. I made a mental note of cold salads (maple bacon potato, diced cucumber, tuna), fresh cut fruit bowls, and some reheatable options like soups and mac and cheese that would be good for anyone staying nearby in a vacation rental.

Visiting Sauders in Seneca Falls with kids

I’d love to bring the kids here next time we’re in the area. I imagine they’ll enjoy the bookstore, the colorful candy selection, and climbing all over the Adirondack chairs and other furniture outside.

As an alternative, there’s a nice playground at Kid’s Territory Park only a minute drive away, so that could be a place to go for a picnic or for an adult to entertain the kids while the rest of the group heads to the store.

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Finally, just a few more notes:

Gifts

Sauders is a great place to buy gifts, especially if you like to give away regional items and consumables.

Here are some ideas:

• regional honey and maple syrup (some in maple leaf glass bottles)
• Sauders brand jams and pickles from the giant pyramids of jars: salsa and tomato sauces, marinated vegetables, dressings, hot sauces, fruit
• New Hope Mills baking mixes
• coffee: Finger Lakes Coffee Roasters, Copper Horse
• books and toys from the bookstore
• craft items from the main store, such as bird-shaped feeders

Mennonites in the region

Here’s a little addendum for anyone who wants to know more about Mennonites in the region. I was curious–I’d seen several of their farms and stores driving up–so I chatted a bit with Tim, a longtime Sauders employee I met in the furniture store.

He told me that the Sauder family, like many other Mennonites in the area, came here in the 1970s. Back then, the Mennonite community around Lancaster, PA was “busting the seams,” so they packed up and moved to the Finger Lakes. “The looked at the rural, flat, fertile land here and thought, ‘this is nice, good growing conditions,'” he said.

These days, on the far side of Seneca Lake, there are about 610 horse-and-buggy Mennonite families, according to Tim’s count, plus on this side some 100 Amish families with horse and buggy and no electric.

Tim calls himself a conservative Mennonite, like many in the area. “As you can see, we have electric, we’re driving cars,” he said. Tim himself grew up without television or radio — and now his smartphone puts both right in his pocket. So he accepts change, but his approach is “be careful!” In fact, his church-based accountability group helps him stay on track.

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At the end of the day, this little excursion to Sauders and Seneca Falls was quite enjoyable!

Not only did I get my shopping done but, thanks to Tim’s willingness to share a bit about Mennonite culture and history, I learned a lot.

I’m looking forward to my next visit–this time with kids–and will report back.

Have you been to Sauders? What are your must-buys? Let us know in the comments!

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