The first employees arrived at Beck’s Crown Bakery in Crown Point about 4 a.m. Tuesday and began preparing the dough to make paczki, the season’s premier food indulgence.

Fat Tuesday, also known as Paczki Day, was the beginning of what would be the biggest and busiest day of the year for the Crown Point bakery, according to Nadine Streicher, who co-owns the bakery with her husband, Craig.

The customers started lining up outside before the bakery’s 7 a.m. opening and would continue pretty much nonstop throughout the day until the doors closed at 6 p.m., said the Streicher’s daughter, Heather, who was busy filling orders along with co-worker Natalie Raila.

“We’ll probably sell about 500 dozen paczki (pronounced “poonch-key” for the novice) today; about 1,000 dozen for the season,” Craig Streicher said.

Three of those dozens were headed to St. Mary Surgery Center in Hobart and its employees, said Christine Treece, the designated pickup person this year.

“It’s a tradition at the surgery center. Someone is always designated to pick them up. This year it’s me,” said Treece as she waited for her order to be filled along with dozens of other customers.

Joelle Head and Emily Kurczynski were loading three boxes of paczki into a car, some headed to the workplace and others for Head’s family.

Craig Streicher said he’s had orders for as many as 20 to 30 dozen, which he said probably went to a business or church. Others, like Jennifer Krooswyk of Crown Point, bought just enough for their family.

“I’m half Polish so it’s a tradition,” Krooswyk said.

Paczki Day started in Poland, where the rich, fried and filled doughnuts have served as a last treat before Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season begins. Traditionally, Lent meant 40 days of fasting, including no meat on Fridays. Catholics often give up sweets or other rich foods as a Lenten sacrifice.

In Polish culture, Paczki Day is a one day a year event, only held on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. But this is America and people of all cultures, religions and nationalities have come to love the delicious doughnuts, and they want them on more than one day a year.

Beck’s started selling paczki Thursdays through Saturdays on Jan. 16 and will continue selling them on those three days only until Easter, Nadine Streicher said.

She said not everyone fasts during Lent so people will buy the doughnuts throughout the 40 days, including Ash Wednesday.

“We get a ton of orders on Good Friday. People can break their fast then and they know they won’t be able to get any paczki until next year,” she said.

Beck’s bakery has nine different fillings to choose from — prune, custard, chocolate custard, cheese, apricot, strawberry, raspberry, apple and lemon— as well as five different fresh fruits — strawberry, blueberry, cherry, peach and triple berry, Nadine Streicher said.

The fresh fruit paczki are split in half, filled with the fresh fruit and topped with whipped cream, she said.

Treece said she had a couple of requests for certain fillings, but she was mostly just going with a variety.

“I’m a custard girl myself, but I also love strawberry and the cream cheese filling,” she said.

Krooswyk said her favorite fillings are the fresh strawberry and the chocolate and vanilla custard.

Is there a least favorite filling? “We never run out of prune,” Raila and Heather Streicher said.

Karen Caffarini is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.