There are parts of Howard County that the suburbs have not erased, and Pete's Snowball Stand in Columbia is one of the holdouts.Pete's sits at the northern end of Oakland Mills Road, and the house there -- with its fruit orchards, vegetable field, and barbed wire fence -- shouts that it was here before Rouse and his insurance company investors.
Pete's is a family-run business that sells snowballs as a summer treat. There are places to park, but it is also a walk-up or bike-up business because the Columbia developments flow right up to the fence. This is shaved ice like Snowballs in Clarkville or the Snowball Stand on Rte 99 -- ice with flavoring in styrofoam cups.
Pete's is open about 11:30 am to 7:30 pm on summer days. Pete's also sells produce, including peaches, apples and tomatoes that you can see ripening in their fields. They also sell their own honey. I heard about Pete's from comments on Columbia Talk and the Howard County Blog. I promptly forgot about it until I stumbled on another post by Jessie X. Hayduke posted a Google map to show Pete's location.
Click here for my post about Howard County places to go for ice cream on a summer night.
Pete's Snowball Stand
at Old Montgomery Road and Sealed Message Road
Columbia, MD
NEAR: Check out Hayduke's map linked above. From Rte 175, you go south on Tamar Drive and then right on Old Montgomery Road where you look for Pete's on the right. From Snowden River, you go north on Oakland Mills road until it deadends into Old Montgomery Road. You're looking at Pete's, and you turn right on Old Montgomery then left into the driveway.
The sign is so old-school home made it makes me smile! Reminds me of the types of signs you would see on some of the ice cream stands and food stops along Route 50 on the way to the beach back in the day.....god, it took so long to get past the two lane bridge in Cambridge and again through the swampy stretch in Vienna.
ReplyDeleteAs you can tell, that pic just took me down memory lane, thanks for the drive mon capitan! I'll have to check that stand out for sure.
Does anyone know what's up with Pete's Snowball Stand (and produce, etc) now that the enormous Blandair Park is being developed and Oakland Mills Rd is supposed to cut through to 175?
ReplyDeletePetes snow ball stand is still there
ReplyDelete