Greek pastries served up to benefit Watertown church

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - For those celebrating Easter with family and friends this weekend, you could have added a taste of Greece to your dinner table.

Saint Vasilios Greek Orthodox Church in Watertown held its bi-annual pastry sale on Saturday, serving up some Greek favorites like baklava, kourabiedes, koulourakia and much more.

Samuel Thomas, the church’s council president, says everything is mixed, prepared and baked on site and it takes months of planning to put it altogether.

He says in just the past 30 to 40 years, he estimates the church has prepared a half a million pastries.

“Years ago, there was a chemist here in the church and he went through and perfected the recipes so that we could sell them, and it was manageable to produce. So, the recipes we are using today are probably different than what was prepared back in the early days,” said Thomas.

Greek Orthodox Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon following Passover, which this year falls on April 16th.

Thomas says the proceeds from the sale will go towards day-to-day church operations and to fund missions here in the U.S. and abroad.

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