Published: October 03, 2009 12:02 am      

Preserving tradition: Food canning stirs family memories for Westmont mom

It’s a busy time for Teena Petrus of Westmont.

Not only does the 48-year-old wife and mother run a successful graphic design business from home, she also cans much of her family’s food.

“It’s so good over the winter,” Petrus said of the canned items. “(They) taste so much better than commercial stuff.”

Petrus has been involved in preserving fruits and vegetables since she was a small child.

“I remember my grandmother, mother and my aunts and me would do soup stock and tomatoes and peppers.

“That’s basically what you did from August through early October,” Petrus said.

“I had little hands, so I could scrub the jars out.

“Thank God we have dishwashers now,” she added with a laugh.

Each year, Petrus and her children, 16-year-old Donovan and 11-year-old Veronica, make the best of the pumpkin harvest.

They do elaborate carvings on as many as 20 of the gourds for display while Petrus freezes the inside for use later in the year.

While pumpkin butter may be one of her favorites, tomato sauce is more popular. This year Petrus canned 150 quarts.

“Everybody thinks I’m insane for doing all this work,” she said.

Petrus left her job as graphic coordinator for Crown America to concentrate on her home business after the birth of her son.

Crystal Quill offers imprinted advertising specialty items, invitations, typesetting and calligraphy.

Petrus said her job is fun but also a lot of work.

Her challenge, she said, is to be creative but also practical.

Petrus credits her husband, Larry, for her success as a small-businesswoman. He is employed as a pharmacist at Memorial Medical Center.

“He gives me the opportunity to stay home and be with the kids and work my business from the house,” she said. “Without him I wouldn’t be able to do this.”

The couple, married for nearly 25 years, met at a Windber Hospital Christmas party.

“It was his very last day of work at the hospital,” Petrus said. “I had a good friend who didn’t want to go by herself, so I went along.

“I saw this incredibly cute guy standing there with a gray suit on. He was tall, with broad shoulders.

“I was there in a bright orange disco dress.”

The two danced, but like Cinderella in the fairy tale, she had a midnight curfew.

The friend saved the day by handing the would-be suitor a napkin on which she had scribbled Petrus’ phone number.

Several years later on an anniversary, Larry Petrus had the napkin framed for his wife.

“He’s terrific,” Teena Petrus said. “He is understanding, and he’s a terrific father.”

The couple’s children are both students in the Westmont Hilltop school district, where both are involved in the music program.

As a band mother, Petrus said she spends a lot of time in the concession stand.

“I think it’s incredibly important,” she said of her children’s participation in the band. “It really provides an outlet to make new friends.”

Petrus and her kids recently wrapped up another of their annual activities.

Each year they enter items in the Cambria County Fair.

They have won several ribbons through the years.

The young people enter their artwork while their mother enters her canned goods.

“We try to enter every year,” Petrus said. “I don’t think people realize that anyone in the county is eligible to do that.”

The Petrus’ entries do not always win but that hardly matters.

“It’s important for the kids to see that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose,” Petrus said.

“You have to do your best, and if you do, there’s no shame in losing.”