Dutchman's Hidden Valley

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Fudge

Brittles

"Cow Patties"

Almond Butter Toffee

Licorice

Rock Candy

"Jelly Belly" Beans

Taffy

Sugar-free Candy

Jerky

Summer Sausage &
Smoked Cheese

Gift Baskets

"Best Friend" Goodies

About the Store

Where We Are

The Dutchman's Hidden Valley Country Store is now owned by Dan and Kara Chorenziak. Rest assured that family traditions and recipes will stay exactly the same! Kara is Ronnie's daughter and Dan is Ronnie's favorite son-in-law.

Excerpts from an article by Gerald McLeod -

"The Dutchman's Hidden Valley Country Store north of Hamilton on US281 is a self-contained shopping mall with 10 rooms and 14,000 square feet of merchandise ranging from peanut brittle to antiques. "We're diversified," says store owner Ronny Wenzel with considerable understatement. The store is a throwback to the days when locally owned roadside shops selling homemade cider, perserves, produce, and arts and crafts used to dot the nation's highways, providing motorists a place to use the restrooms, stretch their legs, and lighten their wallets.

In fact, the Hidden Valley Country Store began nearly 40 years ago as a roadside produce stand. "Johnny Harris had a place down around here where he raised pecans, persimmons, and he had some blackberries and peaches," Wenzel says. "Johnny bought a building, more of a lean-to, and moved it out the highway to sell his produce."

Business must have been good for Harris over the 16 years that he owned the place because he added on six of the rooms in a line parallel to the highway to hold his expanding line of merchandise.

Since obtaining the store 23 years ago, Wenzel says the biggest addition to the store is the deli, bakery, and butcher shop in the back of the store. "We make a mean Rueben sandwich and Bavarian Ham sandwich," he says.

One of the most unusual items in the shop is the bison sausage and jerky that is made on the property from Wenzel's own herd of the shaggy bovines. "I work seven days a week in retail to raise my bison," he says. Wenzel has been in the bison business for six years, but it is his favorite part of the business. "I'm just an old German boy who loved to sneak into the smokehouse and cut off a piece of meat," he says. The fond memories inspired him to build his own smokehouse. His smoked meats are a blend of spice that will seldom offend and usually satisfy most any palate.

As if smoked meats and the Gigoonda cinnamon rolls made on weekends weren't enough to keep the staff at the Country Store busy, then the homemade candies should keep everyone working overtime. The Dutchman's fudge and peanut brittle inspire many customers to drive out of their way just to stop by for a package to take home. A candy distributor in Oklahoma and a TV shopping network in Florida both wanted to sell the candies, but Wenzel didn't want the added work. "You get too big too fast, and you get strung out and forget about the little things that make life worth living," Wenzel says. Flattered by the out-of-state companies' offer, he turned them both down. "I'd rather stay small and stay good," he says.

For Ronny Wenzel, the best part of his job is meeting the diverse crowd of people that step into his store On US281, also known as the Veterans Memorial Highway, the road is the scenic alternative I-35, running from Canada to the Rio Grande. Most of the road is two-lane and traffic moves at a slower pace. "We use more than 100,000 sheets of toilet paper a month," Wenzel says, as a measuremnt of how good business is.

Toys, antiques, kitchen utensils, souvenirs, knick-knacks, and homemade candy are just some of the things on Wenzel's shelves. He has one whole wall filled with nothing but Texas products from prickly pear pickles to fresh clover honey. His wife Sharla can do all of your “special need” baskets year round. There is always a fresh pot of coffee on and it's okay to stop just to use the restroom and say howdy."