Pat Burnley of Intercourse, Pa., got herself into a jam when she and husband Bob started a small jelly business called Kitchen Kettle

Foods in her garage 53 years ago. The concept was to let tourists visiting Amish country watch how local jellies and relishes were made.

Today, Kitchen Kettle Village attracts over 8 million visitors and has become a major tourist destination in Lancaster County with 39 shops, two restaurants and 12 overnight guest accommodations. Local farmwomen still make over 70 food products using Pat’s small-batch, hand-stirred cooking process to maintain peak flavor and quality. The Jam & Relish Kitchen (which also includes a bake shop) is the heart of a country village where streets have names like Blueberry Boulevard and Pepper Lane.

The artisan, craft, clothing and food shops are all small-town quaint, yet quite cosmopolitan when it comes to services and selections. There’s even a village mascot – a gigantic gingerbread cookie named Yummie who has his own toy shop, as well as a kids’ Tractor Town and Petting Zoo.

 A popular destination for girlfriends, couples, seniors and families, Kitchen Kettle Village has just completed a major renovation to add more shops, and a staging area where visitors enjoy live concerts, food demonstrations and special events like Yummie’s birthday party.

 “One of our goals in 2006 was to make Kitchen Kettle Village more cohesive, so people do not have to walk far from shop to shop,” said Joanne Ladley, daughter of Pat Burnley and part owner. “We built two completely new food shops (for Pappy’s Kettle Korn and Lapp Valley Farms Ice Cream), and moved several stores because they needed larger quarters. We also put a lot of effort into enhancing our parking areas and making the grounds more beautiful and inviting.”

Kitchen Kettle Village is so named because of all the kettles the Burnleys inherited when they started their business in their two-car garage in 1954. As Pat began making a variety of jams and jellies – seedless black raspberry, strawberry, apricot and orange marmalade – tourists would stop to watch the jelly-making process and enjoy a sample along with a cup of coffee. She created new recipes and greeted customers from around the world.

Pat, who is semi-retired at age 79, said her greatest achievement is her Chow Chow recipe. She worked for years to create “just the right blend of sweet and sour packed full of end-of-the-garden vegetables.” The business, still operated by her family, employs three generations of Burnleys, as well as 180 members of the Kitchen Kettle team. Her husband passed away in 1993.

She can still be found at the Kling House Restaurant busing tables, attending new-product meetings and gracing billboards and ads with her outstretched arms welcoming visitors.

“I’ll stop coming to work when it isn’t fun anymore,” she is known to say. I guess she’ll be working for a long time.

For information, call 800-732-3538 or visit www.kitchenkettle.com.