Edna Benner's Busy B's Market
A daily feature from our surrounding historical societies.
Many Hatfield long-timers will remember Edna Benner’s Busy B’s Market, a roadside stand on Forty Foot Road just west of Koffel Road, where you could buy fruits and vegetables, pies, home-made root beer, and of course, slapjack.
In 1959, Edna Benner got the Pennsylvania Dutch hard candy recipe from a woman she knew at church. Slapjack candy begins by making a syrup out of molasses, brown sugar, water, and a dab of margarine. Wintergreen, licorice, or root beer flavoring is added, and then the mixture is poured onto a marble slab to cool.
Once the mixture has cooled enough, it is put on a meat hook hanging from the ceiling and pulled until it is the right color and consistency, which is what Edna Benner is doing in the photo.
Edna Benner making slapjack.Once the candy reaches the correct state, it is transferred to a table where it is rolled into a snake, and then cut into small pieces. Finally, the hard candy pieces are rolled in confectioner’s sugar.
Edna Benner died in 1996, but her daughter continues to make the hard chewy candy in honor of her mother, keeping alive this 65-year-old Hatfield tradition.
