JERMYN -- On Ash Wednesday, the day Christians begin the season of Lent, many of the faithful avoid meat. But for folks in Jermyn, that certainly doesn't mean you can't enjoy your meal. There's a potato pancake sale there that's becoming an Ash Wednesday tradition.
Though it's a solemn day for the faithful, Ash Wednesday is soaked in tradition. Depending on where you are, it's also soaked in potato shavings, batter, and fryer oil.
The center of Lenten tradition in Jermyn is the kitchen at the Artisan Hose Company. The potato pancake sale is the first of two Lenten fundraisers.
"Every year we do the fish dinner, we sell over one thousand pounds of haddock in one day. It`s not easy, it takes months to organize. The potato pancakes? Not as bad. We only did about 450 pounds of total ingredients," said Bob Chase of Artisan Hose Company.
Making potato pancakes in a town like Jermyn is a unique challenge because the people there really know their potato pancakes.
"There`s a lot of Russian, there`s a lot of Polish folks here and they know the food. They know the potato pancakes. We went through28 recipes before we got this recipe. We tried for about a month and a half, two months," Chase added.
The long line inside the hose company's garage showed that after two years now the cooks have gotten the seal of approval.
"I was born and raised in Jermyn and I am Polish, and this was a tradition at home. And I don`t make them, so I love to come when they have sales like this," said Annemarie Kitchura of Mayfield.
Volunteer firefighters with Artisan will use proceeds from the sale to help pay for renovations to the company's hall. The key to making money? Make a product folks are willing to wait for.
"I think we kind of look forward to it from year to year. And the best part is the fish dinner after this is done. No matter how long the line is we`re still here and we`re still waiting," added Nancy Mihalisin of Eynon.
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