Rooted in Pa. Dutch tradition, Fasnacht Day faces change
In the kitchen at Friedens United Church of Christ in Oley, Carl Levan and Curtis Rhoads began a two-day ritual to maintain a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition brought from Europe around three centuries ago.
Levan and Rhoads, both retirees, undertook the tedious task of peeling a 50-pound bag of potatoes, by hand.
When cooked and mashed, the potatoes will become the essential ingredient in fasnachts, hearty deep-fried doughnuts that are part of an age-old religious tradition.
In much the same vein as Mardi Gras, sugar or syrup covered fasnachts are the feast before the 40-day Lenten fast that begins Ash Wednesday.
A Pennsylvania Dutch word, fasnacht roughly translates to “the night before the fast.”
Once observed in homes and churches throughout Berks County, the tradition of making fasnachts the true, old-fashioned way is fading with time.
Fewer volunteers and busy schedules have resulted in many churches and civic groups no longer making fasnachts by hand, or simply buying them from bakeries.
Levan, a retired Oley machine shop owner, thinks he knows why.
“It’s the same old story,” he said, pausing momentarily from peeling a potato. “The old ones can’t do it anymore, and the young ones don’t have the time.”
No easy task
Making fasnachts the way grandma made them down on the farm is no easy undertaking.
Amandus “Manny” Reichert, who oversees the fasnacht making at Friedens, said the church follows the same process his grandmother used when he was growing up in Pikeville.
On day one, the potatoes are cooked and mashed and mixed
with flour, eggs and yeast. The resulting dough is left to rise overnight.
Early the next morning, the dough is rolled out, cut into squares and left to rise a second time. Then, the doughnuts, emphasis on the dough, are fried in vegetable oil.
It would have been lard when he was a kid, said Reichert, a retired pipefitter.
Brian Ott, who’s also involved at Friedens church, said it takes years of expertise to make fasnachts just right.
The room temperature has to be right for the dough to rise, and the oil can’t be too hot or the fasnachts will overcook.
Friedens had stopped making fasnachts, but Ott and others reincarnated the tradition several years ago.
“So much goes into it, making them is a leap of faith,” Ott said. “We rely on the older members of the church, particularly women.”
Students from Conrad Weiser High School pitched in to help make 700 dozen of fasnachts at Holy Spirit Church in Reading’s Centre Park. In its fifth year, the fasnacht sale supports the Center Park Historic District.
Dennis Spotts, an organizer, said the process begins weeks in advance with ordering ingredients. A cadre of volunteers spend three days mixing and frying fasnachts, made according to the dictates of a 100-year-old recipe. Then, orders have to be processed from voicemails.
“It’s a lot of labor for what you make on it,” said Spotts, who owns the Inn at Centre Park.
Adam Kenderdine, who owns Benchwarmers Coffee & Doughnuts in West Reading, decided against making fasnachts.
He has the recipe his grandmother, Eleanor Kenderdine, used when he was growing up in West Lawn. She made them the “Dutchified” way, with potatoes fried in lard, a taste that lingers in Kenderdine decades later.
Though he makes triple-raised doughnuts fresh daily, Kenderdine does not use lard or potatoes. It’s a lot of extra work, but there’s perhaps a more basic reason Kenderdine doesn’t make fastnachts, even on Fat Tuesday.
“I don’t feel I could make them like my grandmother did,” he said. “And, besides, I believe fasnachts should be kept as a family tradition.”
Pancake feast
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Birdsboro doesn’t make fasnachts anymore, but there’s still feast before the Lenten famine.
The church’s Shrove Tuesday All-You-Can-Eat Pancake and Sausage Supper is held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday in fellowship hall, 5 Brooke Manor.
“Making fasnachts is an awful lot of work,” said Marsha Springel, administrative coordinator. “We’ve been holding the pancake supper for two or three years.”
A full calendar of activities, Springel said, leaves little room for a time-consuming process of making doughnuts.
St. Mark’s makes soup for group shelters, has a youth group spaghetti dinner, and ukulele, chimes and strings groups. That’s in addition to bingo, hex sign painting and CPR training. And, a new senior citizen’s center is set to open in May.
Patrick J. Donmoyer, Pennsylvania German folklorist, said Lutheran and Reformed churches were once the bulwark of keeping the fasnacht tradition alive.
“Rural congregations, and some in towns, are struggling,” said Donmoyer, director of the Pennsylvania German Cultural Center at Kutztown University. “They’re spread really thin.”
Donmoyer doesn’t see the tradition ending anytime soon. There are still enough churches to keep it going. And stores like Dietrich’s Meats and Echo Hill Country Store still carry fasnachts.
“I wouldn’t say were nearing demise,” he said, “but we are thinning out a bit.”