Elfrieda Dyck

Tireless Volunteer from Waterloo-Kitchener Mennonite Church

Prepared by Hilda Krotz

2004 marks the 38th year that the Waterloo-Kitchener United Mennonite Church (WK) has made fleischpiroshki for the Relief Sale. For 21 of those years, Elfrieda (Elfi) Dyck headed the project with the help of many volunteers.


"The original idea of the Relief Sale was to encourage each church to come up with a saleable item, unique to them," recalls Elfi. "Our ladies decided to make sweet buns, platz (fruit squares), bread and zweiback. A few years later, we added fleischpiroschki."


This filled turnover (piroschki), made of yeast dough, had its beginnings when the Mennonites sojourned in the Ukraine. The fleisch (meat) portion is ground roast beef and lean ground beef cooked, mixed with mashed potatoes and broth, then shaped into a roll.


"At first the ladies made them in their homes. Everything sold well and it was decided that we could probably make them in larger quantities and more uniformly at church." Each fleischpiroshki sold for fifty cents. By 1974, fleischpiroshki was sold heated from an outside booth at the sale.


Elfi took over the leadership of the project in 1979. "My records show that we made 3350 piroshki and 30 dozen zweiback that year. We still had lots of strong hands and arms back then and were able to prepare the dough by hand and do the baking at church. We always started baking on Thursday. People were invited to come and buy freshly baked piroshki at the church in the evening. Almost everything we made that day (approximately 1800) was sold here at home. Then on Friday we baked more for the Relief Sale. If we still had energy left after the meat was used up, we would switch to zweiback baking. 1986 was our record year for zweiback baking, 150 dozen and 3000 piroshki."


"Gradually our strength diminished and some of our ladies passed away. In 1989, Walli Nagel encouraged me to contact a Zehrs' bakery about using their kneading machine. At first I doubted the possibility, but since we really could not go on as we had been any longer, I approached the manager, Mr. Snyder. We were allowed to come in on Thursday and Friday in the afternoon after Zehrs had finished their baking. Now we could knead 18 batches of dough at once. A machine would even cut the dough into balls the exact size we required (36 in 30 seconds). Then 12-15 ladies would stand and make piroshki around their large table. The piroshki were placed on large baking sheets (20-30 piroshki per sheet), then on racks inside a proofer to rise. Next, they went into an oven which had 6 shelves, each shelf able to hold 6 baking sheets. We could bake 1080 piroshki at once. Mr. Snyder also insisted that Zehrs provide the flour. 1989 was the first year at Zehrs and we baked 4300 piroshki and 30 dozen zweiback in about 6 hours."


"Since we could bake so many at once, we were allowed the following years to put up tables and chairs which we brought from church. That way we had 25-28 people shaping the piroshki so we could be done faster. The most we ever baked was in 1991, 5300 piroshki."


The whole process would begin early in the week leading up to the sale. "On Tuesday morning we baked the roast beef (150 lbs.), then took it to the Conrad Grebel College kitchen and ground it, then returned to church, set up 28-30 containers and distributed equal amounts of the ground roasts and 150 lbs of the fried hamburger meat plus the other ingredients into each container, called some senior ladies (they had helped earlier with the peeling of onions and potatoes and frying of the meat) to help mix all the batches by hand. That was a big job. We had to make sure every batch tasted the same. On Tuesday evening, and Wednesday morning, groups of volunteers would come in to shape the meat rolls. The rolls of meat would then be stored in buckets and refrigerated."


When Zehrs no longer opened their bakery, new places needed to be found. Thanks to Conrad Grebel College and the City Cafe, the project continued. Erb Transport provided refrigerated trucks, so the baking could be done earlier. Fleischpiroshki now sells for $1.25 a piece, or $14.00 a dozen.


In 1999 Elfi retired from taking on the leadership role in the making of fleischpiroshki. WK has continued with the piroshki project, but the work is done by teams of individuals, in the church kitchen and at City Cafe. Elfi continues to head a group at Conrad Grebel. In 2003, WK made 4200 fleishpiroshki, Elfi's group made 1128.


"Although it has not always been easy, I have always been fortunate to get enough helpers. Over 70 people are needed to help make piroshki every year. A sincere thank-you to all who have ever helped and a word of encouragement to those who have not. Come on out. You may be surprised how much you enjoy it."


A sincere thank-you to Elfrieda Dyck who has, and continues to work tirelessly for her church and for the work of relief agencies to help those in need around the world.