Summer Borscht…Sorrel and Such
by Helen Rose Pauls

On the first warm days of  early spring, the first green shoots of sorrel or Saurump were eagerly awaited by farm families very tired of ‘cooking from the flour sack.’ Each garden had at least one flourishing Saurump plant and children dared each other to chew a mouthful of the sharp, sour green leaves. Together with stinging nettle and rhubarb, sorrel enriched winter-bland diets not only with flavor, but with badly needed  vitamins and minerals.

 We usually tasted it first in Sommeborscht made with a ham bone stock,  tiny potatoes stolen from the edges of new plants,  sliced onion greens, with  the limp chopped sorrel leaves swimming in the mix. Some cooks beat eggs into fresh cream and added this during the last few minutes. This mixture tended to look like a dog’s breakfast but tasted heavenly. The aroma alone brought the men in from the barns and fields, and loud  slurping added gusto to the table conversation.  Later in the summer, beet tops were used in Sommerborscht as well as sorrel, but sorrel had a better flavour.
 Although my mother did not use sorrel for Platz, those who did not have rhubarb in early spring may  have  tried it in desperation.  I have heard that it is quite good.  I have included the recipe below as well as  two versions of the soup.

Sorrel Soup with Hambone
2 quarts soup stock [boil ham bone for an hour and cut off meat to put into the soup]
½ cup chopped onion greens
several sprigs of dill and parsley
2 cups diced potatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Boil for ½ an hour.
Add 2 cups chopped sorrel and 1 cup cream at the end and cook  for another 2 minutes.   (Optional: whirl 2 eggs in the blender with the cream.)

Sorrel soup with Chicken Stock
To 5 cups chicken stock, add  2 tablespoons butter, 3 cups chopped sorrel, ½ cup chopped onion greens, ½ cup cream and 3 beaten eggs.  Cook for 5 minutes. Delicious!

Platz with Sorrel
Mix 2 ½ cups flour, 1 cup sugar, ½ cup butter, 2 tsp. Baking Powder, 1 tsp. vanilla.
Reserve a cup of these crumbs for topping.
To the remainder, mix in  1 cup milk, 2 beaten eggs.
Pour into 9 by 12 greased  pan and top with a thick layer of finely chopped sorrel. Sprinkle ½ cup sugar [or more] onto the sorrel and cover with reserved  crumbs.
Bake at 350 F. for 40 minutes. Good hot with whipped cream.

Memory, History, Thanksgiving: A Time to Celebrate

In 1948, 3765 Mennonite refugees arrived in Canada, the largest number of post-WWII Mennonite ‘DPs” to arrive between 1947 and 1952.  Next fall we will celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of this escape to freedom.

A special committee, under the umbrella of MHSBC’s Events Committee, is at work planning this event, which will take place in conjunction with the annual fundraising banquet.

At left, a group of Mennonites leaves Austria enroute to Canada.