PA Fudge Company

Doreen Landis remembers when she was a child and one of her favorite things to do was to make homemade ice cream. She can remember finding the phone number for Central Market when she was ten years old so she could call and ask if they would allow her to sell her secret recipe, homemade ice creams. Her grandfather had a stand at Market and the lore of Central Market has stuck with her through the years. The possibility that she could run a business that would make people feel a strong sense of community and happiness was soon presenting itself to her. In 1994, under previous ownership, the PA Fudge Company had it's inception at Central Market. The stand sold homemade fudge and sold copious amounts of it to Lancaster's notoriously sweet- toothed inhabitants. Since then, Doreen has expanded into selling another local guilty pleasure, Coleman's Ice Cream. When Doreen was doing some shopping one fateful day in market in 2006, she stopped in her tracks when she saw a "for sale" sign on the stand of the PA Fudge company. The opportunity to sell ice cream to the tight knit community of Market shoppers was, just like the products that she would soon be selling, simply irresistible. She bought the stand and gave it a face lift.

PA Fudge retails their fudge by weight and offers at least a dozen different varieties of fudge on any given market day. Some notables Van Winkles Opera Fudge, Chocolate Marshmallow, Maple Walnut, Peanut Butter Chocolate, Key Lime, Pumpkin, and Moolicious, a Lancaster inspired fudge that is truly mooving - just don't ask what's in it. The PA Fudge stand still sells locally made Coleman's Ice Cream by the boat-load, and they do so by the scoop, by the pint, in a float, on a hot PA Fudge sundae, or in a shake! Oh the possibilities!

Got a sweet tooth but also a dress size you want to eliminate? Try their Organic Yogurt Bar, offering all sorts of toppings, granola, fruit and berries, wheat germ, various grains and seeds, honey, Oreo cookies, and gummi bears.

The PA Fudge company offers so many addicting products that they have expanded into another downtown Lancaster location, the Chestnut Hill Cafe, so that their customers can satisfy their cravings nearly every day of the week. It sits quietly on the corner of Pine and Chestnut over in the West End.

Fun Facts about PA Fudge:
-Though many stands at Central Market can be likened to Ma and Pa Shops, PA Fudge's moniker is derived from our states initials.

-Arguably, but never proven, their best customers are pregnant women.

-There are, in fact, no cow patties in the Moolicious Fudge.

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