photo by: Contributed

Susan Lechtenberg-Fingerhut takes a selfie with other volunteers after making bierocks for St. John's Oktoberfest.

It’s St. John’s Oktoberfest weekend, and just like each of the past 20 or so years, that means Susan Lechtenberg-Fingerhut has her breakfast plans covered.

“We start at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning of the event frying all of the schnitzel,” said Lechtenberg-Fingerhut after some food prep work in the church basement earlier this week. “So, every year for breakfast, I get schnitzel. Which is wonderful.”

Saturday’s celebration will be the 30th year of St. John’s Oktoberfest, she said. It started with the late Mariele and Goetz Berthold, both German immigrants. They helped organize it for years, and Mariele – known as “Oma,” German for “grandma,” in her later years – provided recipes for some classic German dishes herself.

Lechtenberg-Fingerhut has been helping with Oktoberfest for 22 years, and she sees all the work that goes into it behind the scenes, preparing not just schnitzel, but hot dogs, bratwurst, cabbage rolls and German potato salad, just to name a few.

What’s her favorite thing on the menu?

“The bierocks,” she said. “It’s our family recipe.”

Parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and godparents of hers have all helped make the meat-and-cabbage-filled bread rolls at St. John at one time or another.

They’re made the first week of August, she said, about 2,000 to 2,400 of them in total. Both the bread and the filling are made from scratch, and the ingredients are enough to fill not just the bed of her pickup, but the cab, too.

photo by: Contributed

A truck is filled with supplies for bierocks for St. John’s Oktoberfest.

“It takes almost four days to make that,” she said. “It’s a process. We don’t have time to do it this week, because school is in session, so it’s kind of a juggling act.”

On Tuesday, a handful of volunteers gathered around a table in St. John’s basement measuring portions of cabbage roll filling. Of course, everyone gets to taste-test it before they start.

“Everybody eats,” Lechtenberg-Fingerhut said. “We take it around and make sure it’s not missing anything, or if it’s too spicy or it’s not spicy enough or it needs a little bit more of this or a little bit more of that. We test every single batch that goes out of this kitchen.”

They’ve also been making sauerkraut this week, and it’s especially important to taste-test that, she said. “You don’t know how sour the sauerkraut’s going to be, so every year there’s a difference.” They prepare multiple batches of it at different times in the week just to get it exactly right.

“That’s the good thing about German food being hearty – it will hold up a couple of days,” she said.

Of course, there will be beer, too, and Lechtenberg-Fingerhut said some beer even makes its way into the food. It cooks out, of course, but it adds some extra flavor. Which dishes use it? “I’m not going to tell,” she laughs.

Come Friday and Saturday, the volunteers will start assembling everything and do the last-minute tasks like the schnitzel fry. In all, it takes about 100 volunteers to pull everything together, Lechtenberg-Fingerhut said.

“How many people does it take? It takes a village. And I tell you what, the wonderful thing about this is, we have so many people that are with the church and with the community of Lawrence. We have people that come from Kansas City to help. I have some friends that fly in from Arizona that actually come down to help.”

When the Journal-World sat down with Lechtenberg-Fingerhut this week, her phone kept going off – an alert tone that sounds like a horse whinnying. “I’ve been getting text messages – that’s what the horse is – of, ‘Hey, do you need help?'” she said.

photo by: Contributed

Volunteers help make bierocks at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Parish.

One Sunday this year, she got a bit nervous because she thought she’d be low on volunteers. Then, when mass let out, eight more people she knew came down to the basement, willing to work.

“I just looked at them, I said, ‘You, go over there and start cutting dough. You, go over there and help with the roasters. You, go over there and help with that. And they did, and it just worked out!”

It doesn’t stop there. Lechtenberg-Fingerhut said she works to get University of Kansas students involved, reaching out to sororities and fraternities. And the event’s sponsors include Yuengling, which will have its beer truck on site; Johnny’s North, which is furnishing the pretzels; and even a grocer in Eudora, Gene’s Heartland Foods, which is providing hot dogs and buns.

“It’s a wonderful community,” Lechtenberg-Fingerhut said of the volunteers. “It’s a wonderful family.”

Oktoberfest is from 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Parish, 1234 Kentucky St. There’s no admission fee, and there will be live music, a sing-along with traditional German songs and more. Find more information at St. John’s website, https://sjevangelist.com/oktoberfest.