THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 21, 1994 TAG: 9410200145
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
JIM SCHUCHERT HAS the comfortable, craggy look of a man who enjoys his job (as a mechanic for Central Fidelity Bank) and his hobbies - gardening and figuring out what to do with the offbeat things that he grows.
Things like loofahs, which look a lot like okra with an overactive thyroid gland, and West Indian gherkins which bear no resemblance whatsoever to the kind of baby cucumbers that Heinz turns into pickles with a similar name.
Betty Schuchert is a slim, trim substitute teacher who admits to owning a Harley Davidson motorcycle jacket, coming from Mars (Pennsylvania, that is) and wanting to be successor to the ultimate down home homemaker, Mayberry's Aunt Bea.
Together, the Schucherts, who live in the Beach Borough, have two college-age sons, a canine who takes his family protector role very seriously, a pair of docile cats who don't take the dog seriously at all and more than 50 ribbons for the homemade jams, jellies, salsas and vinegars they've carted off to area fairs and festivals over the last few years.
This year alone they came home from the State Fair with three second-place ribbons and four firsts.
Not to mention a pair of ``Best in Shows''.
Betty took the big purple ribbon for her amaretto peach preserves, a sweet, nutty, nippy conserve, the recipe for which Smuckers would probably give its eye teeth. Fat chance. Betty does not give away her secrets, or sell them either. ``I'll share the food, but not the recipe,'' she said coyly.
Jim got his ``Best in Show'' for a hot Italian herb vinegar pretty enough to win on looks alone.
The bottle contains sprigs of parsley, oregano and basil along with garlic and three Santa Fe grande chili peppers, all of which Jim grew. ``When we put the herbs in (the bottle) all the leaves just opened perfectly,'' he explained, still amazed at the good fortune that he feels copped him the prize. ``That doesn't happen very often.''
Betty was the first Schuchert to get into the canning and preserving business. It happened when one of their sons had some hyperactivity problems.
``Back then they blamed it on food additives,'' she said, ``so I decided to grow and make everything I could.''
Between them, the Schucherts still do. Jim's forte is his garden, an 80- by 120-foot plot on a friend's farm. In addition to all the usual vegetables, he delights in swapping seeds with other gardeners and growing unusual plants like those round, spongy West Indian gherkins.
``That thing went everywhere,'' he said of the vine. ``Believe me, they're not something you'd want to eat.'' Nevertheless he entered a specimen in the State Fair a few years ago and brought home a seventh-place prize.
``Which was interesting,'' Betty chimed in, ``since when we checked there were only supposed to be six places in that category.''
Betty began entering contests - or rather Jim placed an entry for her - at the Neptune Festival back in 1981. The peach/pear jam he sneaked out of the house took a first prize. She's been hooked on contests ever since.
``I research recipes at the library, in magazines, in old recipe boxes, anywhere I can find them,'' she said. Like all good cooks she tinkers, adding or subtracting until she gets the blend she's looking for.
These days many of her creations find their way to Harrisonburg where son Jeremy is a student at James Madison University or to Blacksburg where Joshua attends Virginia Tech.
``They tell me nobody else's mother sends that kind of food,'' she laughed. But then it's a good bet that nobody else's mother aspires to be Aunt Bea in a Harley jacket, either. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JO-ANN CLEGG
Betty and Jim Schuchert have combined their gardening, cooking and
canning talents to collect a bushel of ribbons from the State Fair
and other festivals. Jim's forte is an unusual garden; Betty
researches recipes.
by CNB