TIME FOR A BAZAAR
Pre-Easter event set for Sunday at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church
WATERVLIET, N.Y. » Volunteers prepared 11,000 pyrohy on Thursday in the basement of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, to be sold and served at its annual pre-Easter bazaar on Sunday.
Pyrohy, or Ukrainian potato and cheese dumplings, are a popular attraction at the local springtime bazaar, held each year on Palm Sunday.
The upcoming Ukrainian PreEaster Bazaar is scheduled for noon to 4 p.m. this Sunday at the 2410 Fourth Ave. church in Watervliet.
The event, which has been running for decades, features aspects of Ukrainian culture including art, goods and cuisine.
Event- goers can view live demonstrations of pysanky, traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs made using a process that in- volves beeswax and dye. These will also be available for purchase, along with Ukrainian embroidered linens, clothing and pottery.
What many people love most about the Ukrainian Bazaar is the food. Sunday’s menu will include holubtsi (stuffed cabbage), borscht, kielbasa, kapusta and, of course, lots of pyrohy.
This year, more than 60 volunteers spent an entire day assembling and cooking thousands of pyrohy in preparation for the bazaar.
“The production process is impressive, especially for such a small parish,” said event organizer Zoriana Mangione, noting that some kitchen volunteers arrive to start it at 5 a.m.
First more than 550 pounds of potatoes are peeled, the filling and dough are made in the kitchen, then in the church basement one group scoops little balls of filling while another presses and cuts out circles of dough. Fi-
nally, the most skilled and experienced volunteers are tasked with pinching the pyrohy, the most important step of the process.
“There is a definite art to pinching them,” Mangione said, explaining how the pyrohy can come apart while boiling if not properly pinched.
From there, the phyrohy are counted and shipped over to the nearby Ukrainian community center where they get boiled and packaged.
On Sunday, the pyrohy will be sold in one-dozen and two-dozen boxes to take home, or attendees can enjoy them during the event - while they last.
Despite making so many pyrohy ahead of the event, the church often sells out before the bazaar is over.
While of much of this local
pyrohy process is done the old fashioned way, one new concept was introduced for the upcoming event: online ordering.
For the first time ever, a good portion of the pyrohy is already claimed before the big day.
Pre- ordering is now closed, but those hoping to buy some pyrohy are encouraged to come early on Sunday.
The volunteers who make the sought-after pyrohy are proud of the product they put out. “I really enjoy doing this,” said volunteer Irene Demczar as she worked on the pyrohy assembly line Thursday. A native of Ukraine, Demczar is also looking forward to Sunday’s bazaar. “We have a lot of food and beautiful, beautiful crafts,” she said.
Working alongside her was Eva Armao, for whom pyrohy-making is a famil- iar activity. A lifelong third generation member of the Watervliet parish, Armao has been preparing pyrohy, both at home and for the church events, since she was just a baby.
The church does this pyrohy-making process three times a year: before Christmas, before Easter, and once in the early autumn.
Another carefully created treat available at the pre- Easter bazaar is a sweet, braided bread called paska.
The annual bazaar is
a community event that is open to the public. All are invited to experience a taste of Ukrainian culture.
“It’s a great communitybuilding event,” Mangione said. “It’s a way to spread our culture and increase our presence in the community, and it provides for our Easter dinner.”
More information about St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church and its upcoming events can be found at www. facebook. com/cerkvaNY or www. cerkva.com.