One of the really fun things about moving to a new area is finding the stores you want to patronize.  Sambucas Italian Greenhouse and Country Market is going to be a favorite for us, even though it has a strange name.  The Italian is the strange part, because it doesn’t have anything distinctly Italian.  I guess the Sambucas name is Italian, but the owners are named Ambrose, and always have been.

But, despite the odd name, Sambucas is an interesting place to visit.  We went there first because I was looking for some flowers to plant.  Supposedly Sambucas is a greenhouse, which would imply flowers.  And they did have a lot of flowers – all chrysanthemums.  I like chrysanthemums but I was looking for a bigger variety.  But Tom and I did look around the small fresh produce market and checked out the deli selection.

Inside the tiny Country Market they have a variety of Troyer foods.  There are Troyer meats and cheeses, Amish cinnamon rolls, cookies, jams and jellies and a big variety of pickled things.  In fact, I think it is the biggest pickled section I’ve ever seen in such a small store.  There were pickled eggs, peppers, pickles, beets, vegetables and even a few pickled fruits.  Several days a week they have Amish fry pies.

My dad’s birthday on September 1 gave us an excuse to visit Sambucas for a second time.  With my siblings and parents coming to our house for supper, Tom and I bought a variety of salads from Sambucas for a deck picnic.  We got ham salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, potato salad, and macaroni salad.  It was a fun way to try everything.  We also got fresh corn on the cob which was perfectly delicious.  The ham and tuna salad were excellent and I liked the macaroni salad.  The chicken salad was not great, but nothing will ever beat Anderson’s chicken salad.  After our delicious birthday dinner, topped off by cake with the birthday boy, we sent everyone home with one leftover salad.

Tom and I waited a couple of weeks before returning to Sambucas.  Although nutrition information isn’t included on the labels, we have a feeling the salads are not exactly low sodium.  So we can have them occasionally.  This time we picked up ham salad and chicken salad (they didn’t have any tuna) and some cinnamon rolls.  Although the cinnamon rolls are the right texture and the icing is excellent, the rolls don’t have much cinnamon.  Of course, I usually double or triple the amount of cinnamon in rolls that I make.

Sambucas is only two miles from our house, so it will probably be a place we stop frequently, especially when we want a treat.  After looking at the Amish fry pies, we decided we will have to try them next time.