‘Soupy Summer’

For years, parishioners at St. Stephen’s Church in Old Forge held “secret” clam chowder sales (open only to members of the church family).
And now, well, the secret’s out.

Made with fresh and canned vegetables, the chowder, advertised just once in the Triboro Banner at $5 a quart, sold fast.

“It was well received,” Catherine Lehmkuhl said. “We put this thing together in 10 days.

We felt we had a good product that people might enjoy. We decided to share our chowder with other members with the community. It’s the first time in more than a decade since we did something like this. Usually we have sales within our church and our sister churches.”

Lehmkuhl explained that the idea of hosting a chowder sale during in June was inspired by the amount of clam bakes during the summer.

“Traditionally this area has always had a lot of clam bakes in the summer,” she said. “We wanted to do something different. This soup has become a favorite.”

The top-secret recipe is a combination of her mom’s and a parishioner.

Lehmkuhl said the chowder sale was aided by Price Chopper. “They made very sure that I had everything I needed and were just wonderful,” she said. 

“It’s been a great success,” she added.

So much so, that Lemkuhl says there will be another sale for the Lenten season in March.

“We actually oversold what we had available because of the walk-in traffic and had to whip up another batch,” she said.

“Some people chopped onions, some people chopped carrots,” she said. “I had two crews and altogether, including those who solicited donations, 20-30 people were involved in this project. We are a small parish and everyone in the parish did something to contribute.”

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