Fastnachts (fost-nokts) await transport to customers at the Stewartstown Senior Center today, Fastnaught Day. (See additional York Daily Record/Sunday News photos below.) Background posts: Classes offer rare op to learn Pennsylvania Dutch - Part II and PS Harrisburg grad school: 'Set my feet even more firmly on the path into the world of Fraktur' and Noted Pennsylvania German art historian will be missed.
In a York Daily Record/Sunday News story today (2/24/09), writer Barb Krebs answered two basic questions about Fastnachts:
Question 1: What is a Fastnacht, in the first place?
Answer: A Fastnacht is a yeast-raised potato pastry that is deep fried like a doughnut. The name fastnacht is German for "fast night," and the tradition of making them began with the Pennsylvania Dutch as a way to use up the lard, sugar, fat and butter that are forbidden during Lent.
Question 2: What makes a fastnacht different from a regular doughnut? ...
Fastnachts are fried at the Stewartstown Senior Center.
A. "I think it's the potatoes," Hazel Bisker of New Park told Barb Krebs. A true fastnacht recipe includes mashed potatoes.
Many churches in York County also make Fastnachts. Here, Mary Hoover sets out hot fastnachts at Pleasureville United Methodist Church in Springettsbury Township several years ago.
Jim:
Good blog, delivered mine in Louisville,Ky. today.
No holes allowed though.
By the way what is the status of the Mag Men film.
Bill Landes
Bill,
David Zang (dzang@towson.edu)says the economy has slowed fundraising but the project is making some progress. "By early spring we hope to have a 30 minute DVD of the 2007 reunion concert completed," he wrote York Daily Record/Sunday News writer Erin McCracken. "By the end of this year we expect to have all of the remaining interviews completed, along with all other visuals. It will then be a matter of striking some sort of deal to get the editing and song rights paid for."
Jim McClure