‘Our heart is in our business.’ State College couple uses food truck to share their heritage
August and Lynn Pelchar were living in Pittsburgh when they first launched their food truck, Hearth & Harvest, in 2001.
Lynn was a stay-at-home mom and said the couple was “praying for an extra source of income” when she had a realization at a July 4 event in Pittsburgh.
“We were standing in line and I watched this girl selling just plain hot dogs for $4 apiece, with a long line. I went back to my husband and said, ‘You see that? We can do that,’ ” Lynn said. “We both enjoy cooking and so we started thinking on how we could do this. We scraped up enough money to buy a used camper and ... my husband made a little gourmet kitchen out of (it).”
The Pelchars channeled their Slovakian-Polish heritages to form the Hearth & Harvest menu, filled with traditional items such as pierogi and haluski, menu items that also just happen to be fairly popular in Pittsburgh. Targeting fairs and similar events in the Pittsburgh area, Hearth & Harvest proved successful for the Pelchars until they relocated to State College in 2009. Due to August’s job, they set the business aside.
“I really, really missed it,” Lynn said. So, when what she calls “a window of opportunity” appeared earlier in 2020, she and August jumped at the opportunity to restart the business, this time heading to unexplored territory: farmers markets.
In May, Hearth & Harvest appeared for the first time at the Boalsburg Farmers Market, and then expanded to participate in the Millheim Farmers Market, as well as two of the area’s online markets, statecollegemarket.com and centremarket.com.
Now, Hearth & Harvest offers Centre County residents a mixture of the business’s original Slovakian and Polish fare, but also a few new menu items. Lynn said the food truck’s pierogi are the best-seller, with both fresh and frozen pierogi available in orders of three or a dozen.
Meanwhile, Lynn’s personal favorite is a menu item of her own creation, the Polish Combo — haluski, pierogi and stuffed cabbage, or the alternate combo with kielbasi and optional sauerkraut.
“People would say, ‘Everything looks so good. I don’t know what to get.’ I started thinking, let me see if I can come up with something to give you a taste of everything,” she said.
New additions to the menu this year include August’s custom sandwiches, as well as Lynn’s dinner entrees with two sides, and a rotation of salads. “I don’t want to be just restricted to Polish foods,” she said.
So far, Lynn said feedback at the farmers markets has been positive and she and August enjoy being an asset to the community.
“Last time we were at the Boalsburg Farmers Market ... one lady came and ordered two dozen pierogi and haluski and she was thrilled she wouldn’t have to cook, but she’d still have a really good dinner for her family. It’s those kinds of things that I find really rewarding,” Lynn said. “You’re helping people. ... In times like these, when you’re busy working and things are somewhat restricted, I feel like we’re helping and, as one customer told me, providing solutions.”
Looking to the future, the Pelchars hope to launch a Hearth & Harvest website, as well as expand their menu further. They expect to take a brief winter break from in-person appearances with the food truck after Christmas, and take orders via the online farmers markets during that time. You can still catch Hearth & Harvest at the Boalsburg Farmers Market on Dec. 8 and Dec. 15 and Titan Market in Bellefonte on Dec. 12. To place pre-orders or for questions, call 574-2211 (off hours, 692-9947). Orders can also be placed via statecollegemarket.com and centremarkets.com.
“Our heart is in our business and our heart is behind what we do. We enjoy sharing our heritage with others,” Lynn said. “With some of the things we do, we’re using family recipes — it was my husband’s aunt who taught me how to make the stuffed cabbage. Those are good memories to have when we’re working.”