<p>Barbara Miscavage, Sharon Hitzner and Kathy Narcum chop raw cabbage, which Barbara Sura, at right, will carry to the next station as a team of volunteers prepares ingredients for haluski, to be served this weekend at St. John the Baptist Church Bazaar in Larksville.</p> <p>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader</p>

Barbara Miscavage, Sharon Hitzner and Kathy Narcum chop raw cabbage, which Barbara Sura, at right, will carry to the next station as a team of volunteers prepares ingredients for haluski, to be served this weekend at St. John the Baptist Church Bazaar in Larksville.

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
<p>Ray Motyka and Frank Pantucci load chopped cabbage from Barbara Sura’s tray into a mechanical slicer. ‘We used to do all the slicing by hand,’ Pantucci said.</p> <p>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader</p>

Ray Motyka and Frank Pantucci load chopped cabbage from Barbara Sura’s tray into a mechanical slicer. ‘We used to do all the slicing by hand,’ Pantucci said.

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
<p>Bob Konarski uses a large wooden paddle to stir cabbage cooking in a steamer with butter, onions, salt and pepper. ‘We’re making it a little al dente here,’ Konarski said, ‘because it gets cooked more later.’</p> <p>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader</p>

Bob Konarski uses a large wooden paddle to stir cabbage cooking in a steamer with butter, onions, salt and pepper. ‘We’re making it a little al dente here,’ Konarski said, ‘because it gets cooked more later.’

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
<p>Rosie Feddock spreads cooked cabbage on a tray to cool. The cabbage will be mixed with homemade noodles to make haluski, an Eastern European ethnic treat to be served at St. John the Baptist Bazaar in Larksville.</p> <p>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader</p>

Rosie Feddock spreads cooked cabbage on a tray to cool. The cabbage will be mixed with homemade noodles to make haluski, an Eastern European ethnic treat to be served at St. John the Baptist Bazaar in Larksville.

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

If there was a vegetable of the day Tuesday morning in the outdoor kitchen on the grounds of St. John the Baptist Church in Larksville, it would have to be cabbage.

Volunteers were busy coring and cutting one green, leafy head after another, then putting the larger pieces through a mechanical slicer.

Just how many heads of cabbage are we talking about?

“700, 800 pounds,” Frank Pantucci said as he and Ray Motyka fed chunks of cabbage into the slicer. “It’s hard to say (how many heads). A lot.”

All this work with the cabbage was just part of many weeks of preparation leading up to St. John the Baptist’s 3-day bazaar, set for Friday through Sunday on the church picnic grounds on Nesbitt Street.

The cabbage was destined to be steamed with butter, onions, salt and pepper until it reached a state that volunteer Bob Konarski described as “a little al dente.” It would be cooked more later, after it was mixed with noodles for an ethnic treat called haluski, which has its roots in Eastern Europe.

“We make our own homemade noodles,” said volunteer Kathy Narcum, who was cutting cabbage. “Our halushki is excellent.”

What else would Narcum recommend, as far as bazaar food goes?

“Potato pancakes. You can see the line,” she said, motioning to an area near the outdoor kitchen that had been roped off in the kind of zigzag switchback lines that Disney World uses for people waiting to go on rides.

And, of course, there are the pierogies.

“We were making pierogies for nine weeks,” Narcum said. “We have 39,000 for the bazaar. People buy them frozen by the dozen.”

Hot dogs, hamburgers and funnel cakes will be on the menu as well.

“Everything is good,” said Sharon Hitzner, adding she enjoys the camaraderie of working with other church volunteers.

Talk to the parish volunteers — who make their own potato pancake batter, peel and cut their own French fries, and make their own rice pudding and other desserts — and it sounds as if they don’t waste a minute. For example, Rosie Feddock said someone will come to the church at 4 a.m. to boil potatoes, and others will arrive after the morning Mass to start cutting them.

In addition to haluski prep on Tuesday morning, the volunteers intended to cut up peppers and onions for sausage-and-pepper sandwiches and chop some vegetables for clam chowder.

“I’m going to make six batches of clam chowder this year,” Cathy Bat said. “Last year I only made four batches, and there wasn’t any left for Sunday.”

Bazaar hours are 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday and 3 to 8 p.m. Sunday. Musical entertainment will be by John Stevens’ Doubleshot 7 to 10 p.m. Friday; by The Legends Oldies Band 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, and by DJ Rob Sax from 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday.

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