Kinfork Café offers farm-to-table escape in Centre County. Here’s what you’ll find

It’s fall, and right now is the best time to be in central Pennsylvania. For a premier and personal fall fest experience, consider a trip to Madisonburg and make Kinfork Café your destination. The drive alone makes the trip worthwhile.

Leave the high-rises of downtown State College behind and escape through the portal of Boalsburg. At the light, head east on Route 45, and the suburban landscape gives way to farmland. As you hit the intersection in Old Fort, head into Centre Hall on Route 144, passing tidy houses and churches, and make a right on Route 192. In about a mile, you decompress and relax into one of the most scenic drives in all of central Pennsylvania. Enjoy seeing the teams of draft horses in the fields, the clothes flapping on clotheslines, the bright autumn colors of the abundant gardens. You are in the heart of the Plain Community, our Amish and Mennonite neighbors who maintain an allegiance and connection to the earth and its gifts.

Kinfork Café opened last April after several years of slow and steady development. The manager at the café, Rebecca Stoltzfus, grew up down the road and knows the area well. The café’s focus is on selling and serving fresh, healthy food that is locally produced.

Kinfork is a cooperative of 70+ area farmers, all members of the Plain Community in central Pennsylvania. The café offers a range of coffee drinks, from basic to elaborate barista treats, and even features a local specialty called Pennsylvania Dutch Iced Coffee —a sweet, creamy beverage that Stoltzfus says is a staple at Amish functions in the valley.

Stoltzfus explained that the café is a “coffee shop/sandwich place and we try to be up to date with what the popular coffees are. Before we started, I took three of the girls who work here to Lancaster and we toured nine coffee shops ... we also had a barista come in and train us on our machines.”

Although they do not currently offer decaf options in their coffee drinks, almond milk serves as a non-dairy alternative for these beverages. The brand of coffee that they use is Javataza, which is roasted in Lancaster.

What is remarkable about this Amish property is that they are fully solar powered. There are no electric lines to the building to run the refrigerators, freezers and coffee-making equipment. They do have a backup generator, just in case.

The menu items include a $5.05 egg, meat and toast breakfast plate for dine-in and breakfast sandwiches to go. The sandwich and panini list offers many options in the $6-$7 range, and chili and a ham and bean soup were on the menu for $2.35 a cup. Burgers, cheesesteaks and pulled pork sandwiches are offered and range in price from $7 to $10. Salads are also available, and Stoltzfus explained that the Haystack Salad is a Pennsylvania Dutch version of a Taco Salad. Prices vary.

Outdoor seating under a pavilion complements the somewhat limited seating in the dining area, and plans are already in place to expand the seating. There is also a conference room available upstairs that can accommodate 60 to 150 people for special events.

In addition to the café offerings, the shop features a wide selection of comestibles, including homemade sourdough pretzels and crackers, as well as various pickled items, local honey, freeze-dried fruit and maple syrup. Baked goods include bread, whoopie pies, cookies and pies, many of which feature Einkorn flour. This ancient grain is reputed to be digestible to those who have gluten intolerance. They also sell bags of Einkorn flour, in case you want to use it in your homemade baked goods. There is a table in the center of the room laden with beautiful fresh produce and hydroponically grown greens in the refrigerator case from Countryside Hydroponics.

Kinfork cheeses are in the dairy case and are earning a national reputation for quality. Their cheddar comes in traditional regular and sharp forms or in spice-rubbed flavors like Garlic and Parsley, Onion and Dill, Four Pepper and Maritime Spice. These are tasty additions to a cheese presentation and can be paired with some of their jams or honey and other charcuterie. There is sauerkraut in the refrigerator case as well as raw, unpasteurized milk and homemade marshmallows.

One unusual item is the beef tallow lotion, which is sold scented with either geranium or lavender essential oils. This is a particularly popular item in some city markets, making it a good entry point for those interested in experimenting with whipped tallow.

Kinfork hosted their second Farm-to-Table buffet on Oct. 4 and will host other special events throughout the year. In early December there will be a Maker’s Market with craft booths and a second annual Stop’n Shop in April with 75 vendors. Events will be posted on their Facebook page.

An Amish Facebook page? Yes. This is a new era, with a progressive effort to open the window to the “English,” or those outside the Plain Community. The Kinfork Cooperative is governed by a board and committee staffed by 20 farmer member-owners. There is an advisory board, an executive board and four committees — Beef, Dairy Processing, Fluid Milk and Produce. The operation requires numerous meetings, according to Stoltzfus, so it will be interesting to see how it evolves as it grows and reaches its full potential.

For now, it’s a great opportunity to get to know our neighbors and to enjoy a slice of a very different life. It’s a quieter life, dictated by season. Don’t miss this pumpkin time of year out there in Brush Valley. Just leave your laptop at home and remember not to take any photos of people. That’s verboten.

For more information about Kinfork, check out their website.

The café is open from 6 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday and 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. The business is closed on Sundays.