ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Italians savor sweet dough balls or deep fried cookies, while the British and Irish eat pancakes. The Polish have paczki, the French feast on beignets.
In the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania Germans or Pennsylvania Deutsch favor the fastnacht as part of the feast of Fat Tuesday — also known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day — when Christians traditionally use up their supplies of animal products, such as eggs and lard, before the 40-day Lenten fast.
This year, the date falls on Feb. 13. Just don’t tell that to the people who dropped into Mary Ann Donut Kitchen on Thursday morning before the “open” sign was even illuminated.
The calendar said Feb. 1, but they came for the fastnachts.
“We never used to make them ahead of time,” said Karen Merrill, who has worked at Mary Ann’s for 45 years.
Now, what used to be a three-day window to buy fastnachts has expanded through most of the month of February.
“By the end of the year, everyone’s asking for them and we start getting ready,” Merrill said.
“By the end of the year, everyone’s asking for them and we start getting ready."Mary Ann Donut Kitchen employee Karen Merrill
'Everyone’s anticipating'
Allentown resident Ceil Kastrava was waiting in line to make her “weekly pickup” of a few donuts at Mary Ann’s, lauding the family-owned-and-operated bakery for its generosity and community spirit.
“They donate all the time to the Cathedral,” Kastrava said, referring to The Cathedral Church of St. Catherine of Siena on West Turner Street.
Kastrava said fastnachts are both a special treat and “a big tradition.”
As she spoke, the door opened and closed as a steady stream of customers arrived and departed with an assortment of donuts and pastries.
“Everyone’s anticipating the first day of fastnachts,” Merrill said. “It’s really popular.”
Get ‘em here, get ‘em there
Mary Ann Donut Kitchen has two locations in Allentown — at 1601 Liberty St. and at the Allentown Farmers Market.
Both places will sell fastnachts through Feb. 25.
“Plain, sugared and powdered,” Merrill said, pointing to a small wooden sign that hung in front of the bakery display case.
"I didn't even have time to get all my signs out," she said.
There will be no glazed, which are too time consuming as the bakery works to meet demand over the next few weeks.
Orders can be placed but are not needed, Merrill said, unless customers plan to order three dozen or more on Fastnacht Day.
Donuts are $1.50 each, $8 for a half dozen and $16 for a dozen.
For one customer who walked in with a big request — five dozen donuts of all varieties — Merrill offered a gentle reminder.
“You can order them online and pick them up the next morning,” she told him.
Those five dozen boxes, carried out just after 5:30 a.m., didn’t even mark the day’s first sale. Before the ‘open’ sign went on, six dozen donuts already had been carried out the door and Merrill was hustling to load up another tray of the powdered fastnachts.
“It’ll be like this almost the whole month,” she said. “People love ‘em.”
