For the past few weeks, the ladies of the St. John’s women’s organization, called Philoptochos, began spending hours upon hours across multiple days preparing homemade desserts for sale at the annual St. John’s Greek Festival in Blue Point.
Olympia Gouvis, the current president of the organization, helps run the kitchen with advising baker and past president Toula Dimos, who leads about 25 women in baking large quantities of a half-dozen family recipes. The group has about 90 members who rotate, volunteering time.
The desserts include galaktoboureko, a custard-filled dessert and crowd favorite, as well as the ever-popular baklava. Their famous loukoumades, a hot, fresh, fried-dough pastry topped with honey syrup, will be prepared on-site and made to order.
The baking process started two weeks ago and the women start early in the morning and often don’t finish until midnight.
According to Gouvis, they will use 500 pounds of flour, 400 pounds of sugar, 350 eggs, 50 pounds of butter and other ingredients to make a variety of specialty Greek desserts, including the most popular baklava in addition to kourabiedes, kataifi and other pastries.
The women donated most of the ingredients with additional contributions from the church community. The sales from the desserts alone raise up to $25K for the church. All the proceeds of OPA FEST, including the money raised from the desserts, help support church operating expenses and the “Restoring for the Future” campaign to repair the church.
In addition to pastries, for the main meals there will be gyros, spanakopita, moussaka, pastitsio, Greek salad, oven-roasted lamb and more. There will also be iced Greek frappe coffee, beer and wine, including varieties imported from Greece.
New this year to the festival will be a fireworks spectacular show on Saturday, June 27 at 9:30 p.m. for everyone to enjoy.
“OPA! is more than a word—it is an expression of joy, celebration, and gratitude,” said Fr. Dean Panagos. “Whether you come for the Greek food, the music, the fireworks, the dancing, shopping or fun activities, you will discover the warmth and generosity that defines our parish family at St. John’s. We can’t wait to welcome the surrounding community and share an unforgettable time together at our annual Greek Festival here in Blue Point!”
For more info, go to bluepointgreekevents.com or contact the church office at 631-363-6450.
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