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Published: 2/20/2012 - Updated: 3 months ago

A SWEET SCENE: POLISH PASTRIES DRAW CROWDS

Annual paczki sale raising dough for Lagrange area

BY TOM TROY
BLADE STAFF WRITER

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The annual paczki sale in the old Lagrange neighborhood was under way Sunday, the first of three days the heavy traditional pastries will be sold as part of a neighborhood fund-raiser that evokes the area’s Polish heritage.

Bags of paczki were moving quickly on the first day of the sale at 3101 Lagrange St.

Sherry Walker, ONE Village Council president, said the sale raises money for council projects. Those projects aim to maintain the neighborhood through efforts such as opposing nuisance bars and creating neighborhood gardens.

ONE (short for Old North End) Village Council succeeded the Lagrange Village Council when the Lagrange and NorthRiver development corporations merged in 2009. The village is bounded roughly by the Maumee River, Cherry Street, Manhattan Boulevard, and I-280.

“This is our major fund-raiser,” Ms. Walker said. “It brought people back to the neighborhood,” she said of the event now in its 22nd year. The council hopes to make about $5,000 or $6,000 for its annual budget.

The council’s paczki purveyors are bullish on the economy this year. Whereas the village council ordered 1,300 dozen in 2009, it has ordered 1,800 dozen for the sale that ends Tuesday.

Ms. Walker said paczki, pronounced POONCH-key, are not to be confused with jelly donuts. Paczki are made with a more dense dough and with yeast.

“They take all day to make,” she said, because they’re allowed to rise, and then to rise a second time. Traditionally, the Polish made paczki as they used up eggs and butter before the start of the 40-day Lenten fast. For most Christians, Lent begins Wednesday.

Marty Blaszczyk, editor of the Lagrange Street News, said plain, raisin, and prune were available when he was growing up in what was called the Polish Village — Lagrinka — but they weren’t sold as part of a fund-raiser. “Everybody used to go to Menke’s Bakery or some other spot, and it wasn’t that much publicized,” he said.

Now, people come from miles away, usually because of a family connection, to buy paczki. Ms. Walker said that by midafternoon Sunday, customers had arrived from as far away as Cygnet and Canton, Ohio, Pioneer, Mich., and Kentucky.

It was not such a long trip for Joe and Debi Baun of South Toledo. Mr. Baun, 60, went to Central Catholic High School. “I spent four years over here,” he said, adding that the 2½ dozen paczki the couple bought will be enjoyed at home and at work. “They won’t last long. It’s the best paczki you can buy. We come every year,” Mr. Baun said.

The paczki are not made by village council volunteers. They buy them from Bakery Unlimited. The council rents a truck which delivers the pastries in large trays to its building, where tables are set up in a large room, the floor covered by plastic sheeting. Volunteer packzi packers assemble the bags of half-dozens in varieties of apple, apricot, blueberry, chocolate, custard, lemon, plain, prune, raisin, and raspberry — or mixed.

Prices are $7 for a half dozen, $13 for a dozen. On Sunday, the first customer who answered one of three trivia questions related to a president received a $1 discount.

Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday and 5 a.m. until sold out on Tuesday.

And not only are the paczki for sale; so is the building. The price for the former bank, library, restaurant, and coffeehouse is $239,900.

Contact Tom Troy at tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058.

41.67883 -83.54091

Sales from Polish pastry helping Lagrange area.

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