Ruth Marlene Friesen
The Responsible One
Have you seen my novel?
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Ernie and I grew up with a soup made of smoked ham or farmers' sausage, diced potatoes, and large hands full of green herb called 'zurrump' (or sorrel in English). This grew freely on farms, and in the ditches beside the roads.
I recall being sent out to the pasture to pick a bunch of these sorrel leaves, both for Gr'ma and for Mom. But I knew what that meant - we'd have Suma Borscht for the next meal or two!
Dad liked Suma Borscht too, so even when we lived in town, he would take long walks in the ditches beside the highway, to look for enough sorrel for a big pot of Suma Borscht (English: Summer Soup).
When I moved back home to care for my parents I pointed out to Dad that the farmers might have sprayed their crops with poison for weeds, and that could have ended up on the ditch sorrel leaves too. It might be wise if he'd dig up some of those plants, transplant them into our garden, so that we didn't have to go hunting for it, and our garden sorrel would be safe to eat. He did so.
He planted them under the fence so that these plants would not be disturbed when he tilled the garden in spring.
Mom liked this borscht with smoked ham if she could get it, but sometimes we had it with smoked farmers sausage and that was my preference. Turns out, it was Ernie's favourite too, but he has not had Suma Borscht now for many years. So he has asked if he can dig up some of my plants and take them back to Winnipeg.
Of course!
So tomorrow our lunch menu will be Suma Borscht, and Dori was asking what needs to be bought tomorrow for it. I've got the sorrel and potatoes, but we'll want some smoked farmers' sausage, and some buttermilk. (Dori wants to watch and learn the recipe!)
My sorrel has been growing like crazy and a lot of the leaves are almost two feet long! They should provide quite a nice tang.
Now that I've peaked your interest I better provide the recipe for this soup.
12 cups of water in a big soup pot
slice of smoked ham with bone,
or smoked farmers' sausage cut into 1 inch chunks
3 onions cut fine
1 tablespoon salt
Cook for 1 hour. Then add 6 cups of diced potatoes.
Boil 10 minutes, then add 1 heaping saucer of cut up
sorrel (sour leaves)
5 sprigs of parsley
a few springs of dill
Cook until the potatoes are tender.
Lastly, add 2 cups of buttermilk or sour cream.
1/4 teaspoon of pepper.
Bring to a boil. Ready to serve!
P.S. You may expect people to ask for a second, even a third bowl full of Suma Borscht.
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