Whether in Michigan or Northwest Indiana orchards, peaches ranked among the many compromised fall harvests for 2026.
Like so many fruit growers, our neighbors Larry and Debbie Wappel’s side yard orchard has woeful yields this year for apple varieties, pears and peaches due to the late spring freeze that zapped blossoms to create barren branches usually laden with plump pickings.
As a note of hopeful optimism, it’s often true-to-form that trees found fruitless one season result in a bumper crop harvest the following year.
For our annual batches of peach preserves last month, not only were Mom and I missing Dad to help with the peeling and slicing of the fruit to prepare it for the cooking stage, but we were also missing our usual FRUIT.
Besides our neighbors’ empty trees, including oldest sister Carol’s orchard farm friends near Monterey and Culver, the orchards of Southwest Michigan have sparse harvests this year. Eventually, I found crates of fresh-picked peaches in September that met our canning needs from a family fruit stand near Coloma, Michigan.
The last of our farm peach trees was a “volunteer” peach tree I wrote about in an Oct. 15, 2014, column that is captured in my last published cookbook in 2019, “Back From the Farm.”
During my youth in the 1970s and 1980s, a resilient peach tree grew completely on its own from a discarded peach pit my Auntie Lilly tossed out with other fruit peels next to the concrete wall of what was once the farm’s outdoor root cellar. That lone pit grew into a tree that yielded sweet harvests for decades.
In recent years, I’ve been fascinated not only by the cooking and baking possibilities of peaches but also consumed with curiosity about what was once a controversial push in the mid-1970s, about the possible healing properties from chemical elements contained inside the pits of both peaches and apricots.
This unproven experimental cancer treatment using the natural component Laetrile (also known as amygdalin or vitamin B17) hit its peak in public attention in 1977. This highly controversial substance extracted from the pits of peaches and apricots was given a cover story titled “Miracle Drug?” in a June 1977 issue of Newsweek magazine.
Unproven, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the interstate shipment of Laetrile due to what was deemed a lack of effectiveness and risks of cyanide poisoning. Cyanide, which is found inside the pits of peaches and apricots, was hailed by promoters claiming that the compound targeted cancer cells exclusively. It was long before clinical trials by the Mayo Clinic and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) concluded that “Laetrile was ineffective as a cancer treatment and could cause dangerous cyanide poisoning.”
Despite the warning and the bans on transport of the extracted drug compound for treatment, thousands of American cancer patients still traveled to clinics in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1977 to receive the treatment. Tijuana became the global hub for Laetrile therapy with clinics like the Clinica Del Mar, founded by Ernesto Contreras, welcoming waiting lists of top-paying patients to be treated seeking alternative care outside FDA jurisdiction.
Dad’s brother, my Uncle Wally, who was a decade older than Dad, was one of the patients who traveled to Mexico to the clinic for treatment of his cancer diagnosis in 1977.
A technical sergeant in the Army, a celebrated tail gunner in World War II, Uncle Wally brought back to the farm a suitcase filled with the vials for treatment, most of which went unused since he died at his home in Hammond at age 57 in March 1977. (Grandma Potempa had Auntie Lilly bury the suitcase of vials in a remote field.)
Actor Steve McQueen, diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, traveled to Rosarito Beach, Mexico, in 1979 to experiment with the same Laetrile treatments and died in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, at age 50 on November 7.
Despite gossip column items at the time of her death, socialite Babe Paley, wife of CBS radio and TV founder William Paley, did not seek the same treatment, though it’s believed her husband urged her to consider it.
Following her diagnosis with terminal lung cancer in 1974, Babe, who was the daughter of famed neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing, used mainstream medical care, including chemotherapy and radiation, until her death at age 63 in July 1978.
Nurse and devoted reader Judy Gudeman of Kouts recently shared a fascinating discussion with me about the above that was capped off by her providing me with her favorite easy homemade peach pie recipe. Nurse Judy has been featured with her recipes in all of my published cookbooks. However, somehow her peach pie recipe had escaped me until this month to share with other readers.
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is a weekly radio host at WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at [email protected] or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Judy Gudeman’s Homemade Chilled Fresh Peach Pie
Makes 8 slices
Ingredients
1 baked (9-inch) single pie crust
8 fresh peaches, washed, sliced and diced
1 cup water
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1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 package (3 ounces) peach gelatin
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
Directions
1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add water, sugar and cornstarch. Mix until well combined and continue to stir with a wire whisk until mixture thickens. Remove from heat.
2. Add peach gelatin and stir until completely combined. Set aside to cool while preparing peaches.
3. Wash, dry, peel and slice peaches about 1/2 inch thick. Remove pits and discard. Cut peach slices in half. Place in a bowl. Repeat until all peaches have been prepped.
4. Add, once cool to the touch, the prepared peach glaze. Gently fold in with fruit until all the sliced peaches are coated. Pour into prepared, already baked pie crust. Spread evenly with spatula. Place on baking sheet to catch any overflow. Chill for 4 hours or overnight.
5. Prepare whipping cream just before serving by placing heavy cream into the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the wire whisk attachment, beat on high for 5-6 minutes until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar. Beat an additional one minute. Serve pie with fresh, fluffy whipped cream and a garnish of mint with a fresh peach slice if desired.