After taking a year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saint Cecila’s Church fasnacht sale returns in late February to help make your Shrove Tuesday as delicious as possible.
Read More: A short history of Lebanon’s love affair with fasnachts
Although organizers say that the sale this year will be “scaled down” from the church’s usual annual run, there’s nothing small about the numbers planned for the sale, which will take place on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 26-27.
The sale begins at Saint Cecila’s (120 E. Lehman St.) at 2 a.m. Saturday and will run continuously thanks to a three-shift volunteer brigade until completely sold out. Demand is expected to be very high after the year-long absence, but supplies are expected to last into Sunday simply because volunteers will still be making the sugary fried donuts until they run out of ingredients.
Fasnacht co-chair Ed Hicks told LebTown that the church has ordered about 20,000 pounds of baking supplies, including 11,000 pounds of flour, over 10,000 eggs, and plenty of sugar, margarine, Crisco, and milk to round out the recipe. The milk will come from local dairy Patches and the eggs from Lititz-based wholesaler Sauder’s Eggs. The remainder of ingredients come via Sysco.
Baking begins on-site at 9 p.m. Friday, with roughly 60,000 fasnachts expected to be produced over the weekend. In addition to the core team of Saint Cecila’s parishoners, Kohl’s department store is providing volunteer help and a monetary gift for the effort through the Kohl’s Volunteer Program.
No preorders are being offered this year. Up to eight dozen fanachts can be purchased by each individual at a cost of $12 per dozen. Sugared and non-sugared fasnachts will be available.
To learn more about the history of fasnachts locally, check out Josh Groh’s article from last week about the storied (and sugared) Lebanon County tradition.
Want to see behind the scenes of this mega-production? Here’s Lebanon County videographer Savi You’s look at Lebanon’s iconic popup fasnacht factory from back in 2017.
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