NILES, Ohio (WKBN) – Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Niles is kicking off its Fall Festival on Friday.

Volunteers were hard at work Wednesday prepping the parish’s famous cheese puffs for this weekend.

Volunteers typically prepare 20,000 puffs for the summer festival. They expect to sell about a third to a half of that this weekend. They say the deep-fried cheese wrapped in dough is such a popular menu item that they need to prepare some in advance. Each puff is made by hand.

“We have our mixer here that’s our automation, and we just got a new dough-cutting machine to help save our hands. We’re getting a little automation after 50 years,’ said Ann Marie Beagle, a parishioner.

Volunteers plan to prep more cheese puffs and twists on Thursday.

The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.