Bryan Stalder
Contributor

Join our Northeast News staff this summer as we hit the road and share with our readers a new weekly feature on where to go and what to do, just a few miles or hours away from home.

For our next adventure, Creative Art Director Bryan Stalder takes his wife Christian, and his mother-in-law Lisa, on a trip to the May Days Festival and Craft Show in Jamesport, Missouri.

A few months ago, my wife and I took my mother-in-law on a day trip to Jamesport, Missouri for Mother’s Day. Jamesport is an Amish community about 80 minutes north of Kansas City on I-35. The Amish are an interesting Christian subculture that trace their roots to the 16th century Protestant Reformation, and they don’t work on Sundays. As a result, most of their town events are on Fridays and Saturdays, and the shops are all closed on Sundays, so we started out around 10:00 on a Saturday morning traveling north on I-35, and we arrived in Jamesport around 11:30.

We were all hungry so the first thing we did was eat lunch at the Gingerich Dutch Pantry, a restaurant in the heart of Jamesport. The wait to be seated was about 20 minutes, and the line to dine-in grew longer as we sat there. It was well worth the wait, though. My mother-in-law and wife ate at the made-from-scratch all-you-can-eat homestyle buffet — fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and more. It was only $12.99 for each of them. I had my favorite — the reuben sandwich for $6.99, and it was great!

It was the weekend of the May Days Festival and Craft Show, so we stopped by that event. It featured live music, food trucks, and craft vendors right in the middle of town. Items for purchase included purses, knives, candles, clothing, hats, household decor, and garden seedlings at surprisingly low prices.

Next, we picked up a map that featured the location of farms and shops around town that were open to the public. We visited the Jamesport Country Store and bought a giant jar of pickles for my wife, some salt water taffy for the kids, and some mason jar lids for my home canning hobby.

One major highlight of the trip for me was the Countryside Bakery, which bakes fresh breads, cookies, cakes, and cinnamon rolls, and they fry up donuts and hand pies. Fried hand pies are a Southern treat and they’re popular in Arkansas and Oklahoma, but since Boulevard Bakery on Independence Avenue closed, fresh made fried hand pies aren’t as readily available in Kansas City as they used to be, so I picked up a dozen of those.

We stopped by the Rolling Hills store, which was in an out-building on a farm property, and they had a lot of interesting products. I was most interested in the old gaslight that kept the place illuminated (and gave off quite a bit of heat!)

We passed a farmstand that had some great looking farm fresh tomatoes. It worked on an honor system, so we simply left cash in a box and picked out a few humongous ripe beefsteak tomatoes.

As we were driving along country roads, we saw a sign that said “School auction” and decided to follow them. We arrived at a large barn with hundreds of horse buggies tied up. Outside, Amish men were bidding on livestock as the auctioneer spoke at a rapid-fire pace. Inside, another auctioneer was calling out bids on handmade wooden furniture, quilts, flower arrangements, household items, and other goods while younger families ate hot dogs, bags of chips, and soda. It was an opportunity for us to strike up a conversation with some of the Amish families in town. We didn’t bid on anything but it was a fun and memorable experience.

After the auction, we traveled to a farm that had a small shop that primarily sold essential oils. The man working inside was an interesting character with a fun sense of humor. Many of the products he sells are oils that he extracts himself. He also had other items for sale, including small wax cones filled with cedar chips which are used to get fires started. They’re made out of excess candle wax so they had a lavender fragrance to them; an interesting byproduct that has come in handy for nights by the fire pit in our back yard.

My mother had visited Jamesport last fall and she picked up some extraordinary mums from the Graber Greenhouse, so I made sure to take my mother-in-law there before we left town. We picked up different varieties of tomato seedlings, and some other plants, including a large aloe plant for just $15!
Our experience in Jamesport, MO included a lot of shopping, but nearly everything was handmade and surprisingly cheap.

We had so much fun that we’re likely to return for their Heritage Days Festival on Friday, September 22 and Saturday, September 23. For the quilters who enjoyed reading about Dorri’s trip to Hamilton, Missouri last week, The Amish Country Quilt Show will be at the Spillman Event Center on Saturday, October 14. The fall season is a great time to visit Jamesport, Missouri, and a complete list of events is available at jamesportmissouri.net/home.html so you can pack your next day trip full of plenty of fall activities.

Gingerich Dutch Pantry
Restaurant & Bakery
118 S Broadway St
Jamesport, MO 64648
(660) 684-6212
https://www.gingerichdutchpantry.com/

Jamesport Country Store
31115 Hwy NN,
Jamesport, MO 64648
(660) 684-6664

Countryside Bakery
21870 MO-190,
Jamesport, MO 64648
(660) 684-6767

Graber Greenhouse
30707 MO-6,
Jamesport, MO 64648

Gun Show
At the Spillman Event Center
Friday, September 1
Saturday, September 2
Sunday, September 3

Fish Fry
At the Spillman Event Center
Friday, September 8 at the Spillman Event Center starting at 4:00

Heritage Days Festival
Friday, September 22 and Saturday, September 23.

The Amish Country Quilt Show
and Auction
At the Spillman Event Center on Saturday, October 14.