Show & Tell soup

Due to requests, here is my recipe for that soup I mentioned on Mel's Show & Tell. Now I'm going to salivate all over myself because I can't have any until August. haha

I can't really give measurements, since it's an 'unwritten' recipe, and everybody makes it differently. So don't worry about it - mine is different than my mom's, hers is different than her mom's, etc. That's the way it goes.

(Someone asked why I can't grow the special herb myself - it's because it isn't commercially available. If I want to grow it, I have to transplant a whole plant from my parents' garden.)

Mennonite 'Summer' Soup

Ingredients:
-potatoes, peeled and diced - LOTS (YUM!)
-1:1 ratio of finely chopped onion greens and Sauerampfer (or beet leaves) - you want lots of this, much more than you think, because it all wilts to nothing when it cooks and it's what gives the soup its main flavour. When I make a big pot, I use an armful of greens. It would be expensive to buy this many onion greens in the store, so check out your local farmer or farmers' markets instead (it's better quality, anyway).
-enough pork product to make a good broth: e.g., a big hambone, farmer sausage, or canned ham with the broth. Hambone with meat still attached is the best, but DH prefers chopped-up Mennonite sausage. Whatever.
-buttermilk (my mom does only a cup or two, but I use more)
-salt, to taste
-a bit of fresh dill (optional - not everyone uses this, but the taste is very nice)

Directions:
1) Fill a soup pot with water, and add the pork products. Let this simmer for a few hours. (The taste doesn't have to be strong, since the greens and the buttermilk add the rest of the flavour.) If you use a hambone, take it out at the end and let it cool so you can shred the meat to return to the pot.
2) Add potatoes and greens - cook for 15-20 minutes, until the potatoes are done. Don't boil the soup past this point, otherwise the potatoes will turn to mush. The greens should be wilted and dark.
3) Add a cup or two of buttermilk. I know it sounds weird, but don't omit this ingredient.
4) Simmer for a while, maybe half an hour or more, but be careful not to let it boil.
5) Add salt to taste, and dill if you want.

When I was a child, we ate this with fresh buns and butter, and raw milk to drink. Yum...