AJ Pickle Patch and Salads

AJ’s is closed for good. Beiler’s Hand Rolled Donuts (the same owners of AJ’s) are opening soon in this location with hot fresh donuts!

Great pickle selection!
I tried:
— spicy pickle (love!)
— aged pickle (good)
— new dill pickle (still had the taste of a regular cucumber mixed with a hint of sourness, liked it)
— sweet pickles (didn’t like, too sweet for my tastes)
They sell them by pint, quart, or as a whole. Prices weren’t bad. A whole one was around $ 0.75 to $ 1.10 and the pint was $ 1.99 I think.

I like to order some cole slaw or macaroni salad or potato salad or homemade potato chips from here to complement my sandwich from DiNics (see my review).
Always cheery and helpful, this Amish business has never let me down. They are closed from Sunday through Tuesday.
Except for what I mentioned above, I’ve not tried anything else from here, so I can’t comment on the pickles or other foods.

There is absolutely no reason to ever buy Vlasic or any other jarred pickles ever again!
I vow here and now Unilocal readers; the only pickles I ever purchase again (as long as they are available) will be from this stand!
I am known to be a bit dramatic, but taste their kosher pickle and see for yourself!
Their pickled eggs are also too good to be true! If your Mother or Grandmother like bread pudding or rice pudding, pick some up from their stand for them and they will smother you with kisses and cheek pinches! If you don’t want kisses and cheek pinches eat it yourself.

Holy smokes, who knew the Amish could make such an impressive kosher pickle? I ate three in one sitting and didn’t feel the least bit guilty about it. They sell quite a few other types of pickles and a variety of other pickled things, including pickled tomatoes and pickled eggs. They also have a couple dozen different puddings and salads. No false advertising here, folks.
I also picked up a jar of mango pineapple salsa hoping it would go with crab cakes, and did it ever! Wow!
I look forward to coming back here to try random combinations of food I didn’t think were possible. My gut tells me that everything here is good.

You can sample a gazillion kinds of pickled items — including pickled eggs and pickled tomatoes — however noe of them are the «Real» jewish half sours that I love. Theirs are OK — but not that great.
That said — their non-​pickled items (they sell all kinds of slaws, salads, puddings and mixes) are expansive. They also make terrific sour cream & onion flavored popcorn (of all things!) all served up by kind young ladies.
If you need potato salad they offer at least 3 different kinds.

I had the cucumber and onion salad – sweet and vinegary, yum! – two bites of cottage cheese, and a bite of the cherry delight. I accidentally left the latter two items behind when I was trying to catch a taxi to the airport and it’s something that haunts me to this day. Haha! Honestly, what with I imagine the fat content is, that is probably for the best. I’ll be back in Philly in the spring, however, so I’ll definitely visit again.

A few notes on AJ’s Pickle Patch’s products:
— AJ’s Peanut Butter Delight tastes like adult-​onset diabetes, sweet and rich to the extreme in the way that you feel immensely guilty eating it but not quite enough to rationalize not eating it.
— The Pumpkin Custard is basically flavorless. Not just an absence of pumpkin flavor, but any flavor whatsoever. The sole takeaway is custard texture.
— The Pumpkin Bread Pudding was not purchased but should have been, in light of the pumpkin custard fail.
— Pumpkin & Cheese Delight is basically a pumpkin pie/​cheesecake chimera (but NOT pumpkin cheesecake) presented as a pudding. The many benefits of this dessert should be self-​evident from that description.
— The Horseradish Mustard remains my favorite mustard, even as I accumulate endless jars of mustard variations in my refrigerator.

I love pickles and pickled veggies so my eyes lit up when I saw that Reading Terminal Market had this pickle patch stand!
Pickled hot peppers? Yup. Pickled tomatoes? You bet! And regular um pickles? LOADS! You can buy most of the items by quantity (e.g. # of pickles/​tomatoes) or container size (e.g. quart, pint) and they ask you if you want some of the yummy pickle juice as well (just say yes).
They offer samples — try the fresh pickles, hot pickles and aged pickles — YUM — so be sure to drop by and try a few.

Another Amish gem in the Reading Terminal Market. They have lots of pickles and pickled foods like kielbasi which is really good from what I hear (not my cup o’ tea). They also have a number of desserts sold by the pound like puddings, custards, cobblers, etc… I tried some of the pumpkin bread pudding which was nothing short of phenomenal!

Love this place. They carry fresh pickles (aka half-​sours), the first I have found in Philly. Also, there is a variety of other hand-​canned veggie and fruits. Look for PA Dutch potato salad, which people rave about all the time. It looks like too much mayo for me, though.
They put samples out, which is a nice touch. Over all, it is a very friendly, family-​run operation.

This wonderful place just opened up in the past few months. They carry most of the traditional Amish fare, but my favorite part is the loose pickles. They have lots of different flavors and I can never resist stopping to get 3 or 4. They also have lots of salads and desert salads as well. They have a wide array of yummy food, and I highly recommend it!