For almost 100 years, Holy Trinity Catholic Church members have been serving up "a little bite of heaven." That's how they describe their homemade fastnachts, which will be sold at the church beginning on Monday, Feb. 28. Sales will continue Tuesday, March 1, and Wednesday, March 2, followed by Mondays and Wednesdays through March 23.

Preparing the fastnachts - which volunteer Jim Knapp said number 620 dozen each day - requires a full battalion of workers.

"We make the dough at night, and it rises overnight," explained volunteer Karen Sahd, noting that the dough rises in special cupboards set up in Our Lady of the Angels School across the street from the church. "The next day, it gets rolled out and rises more, and then it's fried."

The rolling process is an all-day job that begins at 4 a.m., and it includes exact steps, said volunteer Betty Mahan. "There is a specific way you have to roll them, and you never turn the dough," she remarked. "You release the dough up from the table before you cut them. It's a specific process."

Knapp, who has been volunteering with the fastnacht bake for about 15 years, is in the charge of the frying room and the glazing room. The fastnachts are available by the dozen either plain or glazed, and Knapp said the latter is the most popular choice. "Sixty-seven percent of what we sell are the glazed ones," he noted, adding that the fastnachts are dunked fully in the glaze.

Knapp explained that Holy Trinity's fastnachts are nothing like a doughnut, although both have a hole in the middle. "A doughnut is cake-based, and these use yeast dough," he said. "Ours have a unique taste you won't find anywhere else."

Fastnachts were traditionally made on Shrove Tuesday to use up lard before Lent, which runs from Ash Wednesday to Easter. "We don't use lard in ours, and we don't stop making them the day before Lent," Sahd said. "We actually go three weeks into Lent." As Knapp joked, "We're slow eaters."

In all seriousness, the sale is held annually as a fundraiser for Our Lady of the Angels School, which provides instruction to children through grade eight.

Volunteer Kathleen Lutz said the fastnachts are so popular, they often sell out. "We have people who ship them out of state," she said. "People also freeze them because they freeze well."

Volunteers are invited to help with the fastnacht bake and they'll be offered hands-on training, Mahan said, noting that no one is striving for perfection.

"Our fastnachts are like snowflakes. No one is like the other," she stated. "They are all handmade. No machines are used."

And on the rare occasion a fastnacht turns out that can't be sold, it won't go to waste. Explained Lutz, "There's nothing better than getting to eat a reject."

Orders will be taken online only for fastnachts until sold out. To place an order, visit http://www.holytrinitycolumbiapa.com. Doors will open at 10 a.m. each day for pickup at the side entrance of the school, 404 Cherry St., Columbia. Orders not picked up by 1 p.m. will be resold on a first-come, first-served basis. To volunteer with the fastnacht bake, call the parish office at 717-684-2711.