Fastnacht Fever For Hatboro Bakeries On Fat Tuesday

HATBORO, PA —It was Fastnacht fever for the borough's two bakeries.

Lochel's Bakery and Nonno's Bakery, both across the street from one another on York Road, were blitzed by customers wanting to grab Fastnachts on Fat Tuesday to have a sweet feast right before Ash Wednesday.

"We're busy with constant customers," said a worker at Nonno's Bakery, who had to go handle orders and could not provide Patch with a number of how many Fastnachts had been sold over the past few days.

Lochel's, coming off a wave of customers from the Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl run, hardly had a break before jumping into the next holiday. Watch video below.

From 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. the past few days, staff have been busy making Fastnachts over the past few days, selling out on Monday.

Fastnachts are heavy, yeast-raised potato donuts. They are featured prominently in Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine and are typically prepared on Fat Tuesday, just before the start of the Lenten season, according to a blog fromwebsrestaurant.com.

"The one and only Fat Tuesday is here!," the bakery posted on its Facebook page. "All available staff and friends are working hard but this day is our single busiest day of the year."

Traditional fastnatchts are shaped into squares or triangles, though round fastnachts are also popular. Square-shaped fastnachts are meant to represent the four gospels of the Bible, while triangular fastnachts represent the Holy Trinity. Similar to a Polish paczki, fastnachts have no hole in the center and are usually larger than other donuts, the webstaurant blog stated.