Peach Soup!

My Amish friend Sam called tonight to update me on his tomatoes. Sam and his wife, Ellen, grow the largest and most delicious tomatoes I’ve ever had. Their heirlooms, which they have saved seed from for years, are pretty amazing and they’re just turning red, pink, and yellow, depending on the variety.

I visit them once or twice a week during the summer as they grow amazing corn and melons, which I cannot on the farm due to the gangster raccoons who rule the ‘hood. They still have six children at home, including a grown son, Chris, who has his own beautiful little garden where he raises half runner beans and just a few other items. It’s the prettiest bean patch I’ve seen and he protects it from critters with an electric fence powered by a solar battery. The Amish, I’ve found, are ahead of a lot of us when it comes to ‘unplugged’ technology, running their appliances on propane and even powering the wringer washer on a nifty little diesel-powered generator.  I do covet the washing machine.

The telephone, in case you’re wondering, is touchtone and located in a booth in a field near the house. This year they did get ‘caller ID’ so they could return phone calls. Voicemail though, is considered too modern and that would be a big no to cell phones, though I do know Mennonites who use these and even computers for business purposes.

Usually when Sam or Ellen and I talk in the evening we discuss the weather and I always have my laptop handy to check the latest radar on weatherunderground.com to see if there’s rain headed for either of our counties.

"Looks like rain after 5 tomorrow but more likely Sunday," I tell him.

"Good time to fertilize," observes Sam.

Sam asked me about the peaches he helped me procure last week (Sam and Ellen also have a local food store on their farm). These are good Georgia peaches and I’ve been getting them via the Amish network a couple of years now. There are not a lot of Kentucky peaches around our neck of the woods so we resort to our neighbors to the south. The peaches are always delicious but not always perfect specimens. Our customers know a good peach so they don’t mind if one in the basket seems to have a little peach nose attached.

As it turns out I ended up with a couple of bushels of seconds — peaches with little bumps or bruises that we use to make jam or pies with. Sam told me I need to make some ‘peach soup.’

"All the Amish have peach soup in the summer," said Sam, who teases me sometimes about acting more Amish than English (usually when I’m working sun up to sun down as they do).  Most of the English they know work until 5 and call it a day.

‘This is a dessert?" I ask. As a former New York City foodie I was familiar with fanciful dessert ’soups’ served chilled in elegant china with a flourish.

"No, it’s a supper dish," says Sam.

It goes like this: You slice up the bummed or over-ripe peaches and sprinkle them with a little sugar. You place a piece of ‘torn up’ plain white bread into a bowl and pour some milk over it. Then you add the peaches and sprinkle with a little more sugar.

"It’s what you eat when it’s hot and you don’t feel like cooking or eating anything heavy," says Sam.

Well I’ll try it. In fact, it sounds like a good midnight snack.