TOMTEN FARM

Salad Mix (lettuce & chicories)
Scarlett Queen Salad Turnips
Red or White Russian Kale
Deer Tongue or Magenta Lettuce
Lipstick, Corno di Toro, or Carmagnola Sweet Peppers
Summer Squash or Zucchini
Garlic
Cilantro
Jalapenos

Welcome to our Fall share! We have had a wonderful week on the farm cleaning up summer crops (tomatoes & watermelons) and focusing on transplanting and direct seeding our winter crops so we can keep growing food for you all. At this point all the planting we have left is our overwintered crops such as spinach, carrots, cabbage, chicories, and broccoli and some late fall cut greens, like arugula and salad mix. Even with the planting winding down, there is much to do managing all the crops that are growing, keeping them healthy, watered, and weed free. With such a rainy summer we never setup most of our irrigation so for the past few weeks we have had to throw stuff together in order to keep the small starts happy. But the weather this past week has been close to perfect, so we cannot complain and it even looks like we might get rain this weekend, so yippee.

For this weeks’s share we are excited to bring you a lot of new crops. The salad turnips are delicious and beautiful eaten raw or cooked plus don’t forget about the greens, as they are so sweet and tender. We are super excited to bring cilantro, all season we have had such disappointing cilantro crops but now it looks fabulous and tastes wonderful, especially with the squash and a little jalapeno. Or think about a tasty frittata made with squash, sweet pepper, and kale or turnip greens served alongside a green salad with quick pickled turnips. Check out the recipes below and enjoy the share….Brian and Autumn

Turnip Slaw 

Charred Corn and Zucchini Tacos

Arugula
Eggplants (Dancer, Prosperosa, and Striped)
Potatoes (Yukon Gold or Kerr’s Pink)
Peppers (Anaheim, Poblano, or Cubanelle)
Onions (Candy)
Black Eyed Peas or Borlotto Beans
Okra or Swiss Chard

This is the last week of our Spring/Summer 2013 Share. We hope you have enjoyed the season and produce as much as we have. To mark the end of our main season, we are having an open house this coming Saturday Sept 14^th from 2-5pm at the farm. We will give two tours; one of our vegetable crops and one of our pastured poultry as well as have a short demonstration about crop cultivation from hand, to hoe, to tractor. Please take a leisurely afternoon out in the country and come see what we do. Stroll the grounds, check out our fall crops working to get bigger, visit our pond and wetland, check out the ducks, and enjoy our organic heirloom apples and figs right off the trees. Let us know if you think you can come out, we would love to have you.

This week at market I was reminded of how limited many people feel by eggplants, because we farmers have so many right now and not enough people are buying them. This is such a remarkable climate for eggplant and in August and September the plants really thrive, so we need customers to delve into the versatility of the eggplant and learn to love them. Indeed they do need to be cooked and sometimes this takes a bit of preparation, which not everyone has time for on a regular basis. Plus many people just do not like them. As a child who hated eggplant, it took me many years to learn to love them and realize what I hated was the overgrown, spongy and mushy texture which is so prevalent in American cuisine using the large mondo eggplants. But there are so many different ways that eggplant can be cooked, prepared, and served, that now I am one of its biggest fans. I love this time of year because peppers, eggplant, and okra are in true form and they were meant to grow here in Virginia, as a farmer I really appreciate what thrives in this environment and on my soil. These three crops are all truly underused and underestimated vegetables that can serve as the main part of many meals, not just a small side. Check out this great article by Mark Bittman about eggplant: Meaty and Mighty Praising the Versatile Eggplant as well as the recipes below for new or old ideas. The peas/beans need to be shelled ( a little work) and they are our first trials of different varieties of shelling or dried beas and peas so let us know what you think. Enjoy the share….Brian and Autumn

Mutabal (Syria, Lebanon) from Evrim Dogu, Sub Rosa

Often called baba ganouj, I refer to the recipe with tahini by the traditional name “mutabal,” and the eggplant dip without tahini as baba ganouj (or eggplant salad). Another wonderful variation is to add yogurt instead of tahini and leave out the lemon.

2 large/4 medium/ or 6 small eggplants (large are best for use of flesh)
Tahini (I use Chef Ramzi brand)
Juice of one lemon
Garlic 1-2 cloves
Salt
Olive oil
Tomatoes, parsley, etc to garnish

Boil the eggplant, or if you have a gas stove perforate the eggplant and place directly on the flame, max high. By all means if you have charcoal or a wood fire going, bury in the coals for 20-30 min. Turn them every so often and only take off (or out of water/fire) when the eggplant feels absurdly soft, test with fork. Strip off the skin. De-seed if possible. Using your hands, potato masher, a blender, or food mill/processor turn into a creamy wonder. Add tahini, lemon juice, and garlic smashed in small salt. Use eggplant’s left over juices if necessary for consistency. The amount of tahini will differ from person to person. Start with 3-4 tablespoons and go from there. Blend until of one consistency, Garnish with chunks of tomato, chopped parsley, and a generous lathering of olive oil. Enjoy!

Caponata from The Kitchen Garden

Lots and lots of olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 head garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp chili flakes or fresh hot peppers, to taste
1 pound peppers, cut into large chunks
1 pound eggplant, cut into large chunks
1 or 2 ripe plum tomatoes, chopped
salt & pepper
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp capers
3 Tbsp chopped Kalamata olives
Few sprigs chopped basil and parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat about 4 Tbsp olive oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven with a lid that can go in the oven. Sauté the onion and garlic until soft.  Add the pepper flakes and peppers and sauté over medium heat 5-10 minutes.  Add eggplant and sauté another several minutes. You may want to add more oil to make sure everything is generously anointed.  Add the tomatoes.  Cover the pot and put it in the oven to bake for 20-30 minutes.  Everything should be very, very soft.  Season with salt, pepper and the other seasonings.  Adjust sweetness, salt and acidity to taste.  Serve it warm on fresh crusty bread or at room temperature the next day.  Makes a great pasta sauce, too. (The original version contains chunks of celery, too.  If you like celery, you can add it when you add the tomatoes.)

lebanese-style stuffed eggplant from Smitten Kitchen blog

Arugula
Braising Mix (mizuna, mustards, chard, & kale)
Okra
Thai Box: Thai Eggplant (Kermit & Violet Prince), Tomato, Sweet Pepper, Khmer Thai Chiles (very hot), Garlic, Thai basil & Shiso (Perilla)
And a little something extra

Greens are returning bit by bit; but the real treat this week is the“Thai Box”. We absolutely love cooking Thai food, with its chile heat, rich flavors, and intense use of herbs and spices. Our wild Perilla (Shiso) grows all over the farm and we thought you might enjoy trying it out, it goes wonderfully alongside Thai basil and mint in a salad roll or lettuce wrap; but for an even better preparation, check out the kimchi recipe below from Maangchi, a fabulous Korean food blog. The small round Thai eggplants can be absolutely amazing if handled correctly, but it seems people either love them or hate them. So our suggestion is to use them as they have been intended, try some of the recipes below and do not use them in a preparation that you would for larger eggplants. These little eggplants are supposed to be cooked on medium high or high heat generally either boiled or braised in a curry or sliced and fried. Our absolute favorite recipe is the first one, but all are delicious. Enjoy the share…. Brian and Autumn

Eggplant with Thai Basil

1 lb eggplant, cut into ½-inch slices
4-5 cloves garlic
1-2 medium sized fresh red or green chilies (or sweet bell pepper for the meek)
1 Tbsp light soy sauce or tamari
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
2 Tbsp palm sugar or dark brown sugar
1 bunch Thai basil

Slice the eggplant into ½ inch rounds and fry them over medium high in a wide skillet with ¼ inch of canola or other frying oil. When things get going, the eggplant slices will absorb the oil and you will gradually see it penetrate through to the top.  Make sure that they don’t get too brown on the bottom before this happens.  If the eggplant slices absorb all the oil and still don’t look wet, you must add more—but don’t worry, because they will release much of it as they cook.  When they look like they have absorbed enough oil and they start to get nice and brown on the bottom, flip them over and brown them on the other side.  If the pan is dry at this point, don’t add more oil because the slices have absorbed enough to fry themselves.  When they’re done, drain the slices on paper towels

Meanwhile, cut the garlic into slices and the chilies into diagonal rings.  When the eggplant is ready, remove it and add 2 Tbsp of fresh oil to the pan, add the garlic and half the chilies, and stir-fry until the garlic is golden.  Add the soy sauces and sugar, stir for about 30 seconds until the sugar starts to bubble, and return the eggplant to the pan.  Add torn basil leaves, stir and serve, garnished with the rest of the chilies (if you dare!)

Easy Green Curry with Pork – Gkaeng Kiow Wan Moo 

Eggplant Green Curry

Tom Kha Gai without the Gai – Vegan Thai coconut soup 

Perilla Leaf Kimchi

Lettuce Heads (Adriana Butterhead & Helvius Romaine)
Tomatoes
Okra
Peppers (sweet  red, Anaheim, and cubanelle)
Aji Dulce (chile with habanero flavor but no heat)
Red Onions  (red creole and violet de galmy)
Swiss Chard or Cucumbers
Apples (first off the trees – best for cooking)

A small reminder that we are having a open house on Saturday September 14^th from 2-5pm. We are excited to invite anyone and everyone out to see how we farm. We will have tours of the crop fields and the pastured poultry flocks as well as a short demonstration about crop cultivation (weeding) from hand to hoe to tractor. We would love to have you join us.

So we processed ducks this past week and it was so much faster with the help of two extra people, but it is still a nuanced art and we have even more to learn. Anytime we have a big project with the animals it takes time and focus away from the produce, so this coming week we have much to do and it seems almost perfect weather to do it in. It is funny that we only really have four more weeks to plant with many of those plants not coming to maturity until winter. The season is definitely beginning to change. Our friend Evin Dogu from Sub Rosa bakery was helping out on the farm for a few days last week  We were really lucky that she also helped out by cooking a few meals , bringing some delicious Turkish dishes into our kitchen. It was great because everything she used was from the farm, except of course for olive oil, lemon, and grains. We asked her to send us a few of her recipes so we can share with you all. Have a great week and enjoy the share. Brian and Autumn

Shepherd’s salad
Ingredients: 1 med. red onion, 4 tomatoes, 3 small-med. cucumbers,  1 green pepper (Anaheim ), salt, pepper, olive oil, 2 tsp lemon juice, apple vinegar and/or red wine vinegar (pomegranate molasses a plus!)
Serves 4
Cut the red onion in half lengthwise and then cut each half into very thin slices  (again, lengthwise). Rub with salt until salt evaporates and onion softens (a few minutes). Chop cucumbers into cubes. Chop pepper and add into cucumber and onion mix. Chop tomatoes roughly over the salad bowl so juices spill into salad. Add olive oil, lemon, vinegars and if you have it, a dash of pomegranate masses. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix all together and garnish with parsley if desired.

Okra stewed in olive oil
Ingredients: 1 pint okra, 1 small sized yellow onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tomatoes skin off, red pepper paste, salt, sugar
Serves 2

If okra is big, slice lengthwise in half. If medium sized or small leave as is. Cut the stems off all okra.
Chop onion thinly and saute in olive oil on medium heat with about 1-2 tsp of salt (see note below) until translucent. Mash garlic to paste like consistency and add to onions and saute for a few more minutes. Chop tomatoes and add to pan and cook for a few minutes. Add a heaping tsp of red pepper paste (if available if not, add spicy red pepper and/or Aleppo pepper for some heat) and mix in well.
Stir in Okra, add 1 tsp of sugar, stir in, then bring to a slight boil on medium heat and immediately lower heat, covering the pan.  Braise for 20 minutes on low or until okra softens. Add the juice from half a lemon and drizzle more olive oil on top when okra is done cooking and serve at room temperature (or even cold, this dish gets so much better if eaten the next day!)

Note: if adding red pepper paste, decrease amount of salt as the paste contains salt in it as well!

Salad Mix
All Purpose & Sauce Tomatoes
Eggplant (Dancer, Prosperosa, and Striped)
Sweet Peppers
Paprika Peppers
Garlic (Spanish Roja)
Red Potatoes (Sangre or Desiree)

This week we process our flock of Pekin meat ducks. Processing ducks is a time consuming and patience building exercise and we look forward to getting faster and more efficient at it. Last year the ducks were so delicious and this year we think they will be even better, so we are excited to be bringing them to you, our customers. This week is also our last with our fabulous intern Emily. She is returning to school and will be sorely missed. We have been taking advantage of her presence the last few weeks, trying to get as much of our fall crops planted as possible, plus her help with all of our various poultry flocks is invaluable. The turkeys are now out on pasture along with our meat chickens, layers, and ducks, with more ducks on the way.

On the vegetable front we are so thankful to be seeing a little return in our tomato production. Our third succession has been kind enough to produce even without much sun or heat. We like to use the paprika peppers in a quick tomato sauce or finely chopped and sautéed with peppers and onions for a delicious, sweet, smoky, and slightly warm heat. Do be aware though they have more heat than expected. Both the sweet and paprika peppers also go great with a little garlic and roasted or fried potatoes. Yum. Below are two roasted eggplant recipes, one with tomatoes and mint, another with red peppers, cumin, and tahini. Eggplants can get old for some people really quickly, so we like to offer some suggestions to keep them interesting for everyone. Enjoy the share…Brian and Autumn

Roasted Eggplant and Sweet Pepper Dip

Roasted Eggplant with Tomatoes and Mint

Eggplants (Dancer, Prosperosa, and Striped)
Peppers (Cubanelle)
Onions (Candy)
Garlic (German White)
Tomatoes
Basil
Swiss Chard
Okra or Green Beans

We are excited to be adding eggplant, okra, and beans into the share. It has seemed to take many of our summer crops a really long to develop, flower, fruit, and then grow to size or ripen.  The overload of water in June and July mixed with a lot of overcast days slowed down the growing process quite a bit. Now though they are producing and they are delicious. Plus the mild weather is helping our fall crops get established. We look forward to bringing back more greens, radishes, carrots, and salad options starting next month.

This share gives you some great options for Italian, Indian, or Lebanese fare. Check out a few recipes below. Both the garlic and onions have been cured, meaning the outer skins are dry and they can be kept in your pantry or on your counter until you need to use them.  Enjoy the share…. Brian and Autumn

Turkish Eggplant (Aubergine) Salad

Indian Style Green Beans (Okra can be used too)

Swiss Chard with Bulgur (Bulgurlu Pazi Yemegi)

Cippolini Onions
Nicola Potatoes (golden)
Tomatillos
Anaheim or Poblano Peppers
Chiles
Red Leaf or Summer Crisp Lettuce
Watermelon

This week August 4^th– 10^th is Virginia Farmers Market Week. Please help promote the importance of buying food directly from producers by encouraging those around you to take a little extra time out of their week to get better tasting, fresh, and healthy food into their homes. There are a multitude of farmers markets in the Richmond area and throughout Southside Virginia where we are located. It would not be difficult for most people to find two easily accessible markets each week for a majority of the year. It is Virginia after all where we have quite a long growing season.

Not only is going to a farmers market important, but searching out producers who grow, raise or make their own products brings each of us that much closer to understanding and connecting with what food can be and should be, not for special occasions but daily. We use the term “local” like “organic” or “sustainable” so that it has become a label that make us feel we are buying the “right” thing, but most important seems to be bringing each individual closer to where their food comes from; who grew it, where, building an appreciation for its availability and then there is the reward of cooking and eating with such high quality ingredients, which cannot be beat. As farmers we truly appreciate the joy many of our customers express about making a delicious meal or trying a new preparation with a vegetable they have never used before. Through encouraging people to change how they buy food, not out of convenience, but looking for the best they can get, helps to instill a passion for food, cooking, and of course eating. A passion our communities desperately need.

I was thinking about this week’s share and all the delicious things that can be made with potatoes, peppers, tomatillos, onions, or chiles. They go together so well in a variety of dishes: New Mexico green chile, chile rellanos stuffed with potatoes and cheese, eggs baked in a tomatillo and poblano sauce, salsa verde over home fries, potato salad with a homemade poblano mayo, or a potato, onion, and anaheim pepper quiche. Watermelon makes a excellent dessert for any of these meals or make watermelon juice (blend, strain, and add a little lime) as the most thirst quenching drink of the summer. This will be the last time you get tomatillos, so have fun with them. This will be the only time for watermelon (we have a very small planting that the crows and groundhogs like to snack in) so please enjoy…. Autumn and Brian

onion harvest

red noodle long bean

Salad Mix
Fingerling Potatoes (Rose Finn)
Heirloom Tomatoes (all purpose, slicers, & salad)
German White Garlic
Genovese Basil
A small something extra…

What a beautiful week. This week made summer seem easy and we moved a bit faster as the humidity lifted. We are able to work the crop land, getting ready for fall plantings and seeding summer cover crops. We amended many of our fields with lime last week and compost was dropped off this week, so we can get our brassica and carrot beds ready for planting. Our fall seedlings are looking fabulous. We started over 90 trays (6000 or so plants) this week as a last big push before the days get shorter. Our seedlings include fennel, parsley, Chinese cabbage, red mustard, Swiss chard, spinach, beets, lettuce, chicories, overwinter cabbages, Tuscan kale, and on and on.

Remember during May and June all that constant rain that we kept talking about, well now we are feeling the effects. Our eggplant, beans, okra, cucumbers, and sweet peppers are coming on later than we hoped, so the share has a few less options than normal, but delicious options all the same. We hope that you enjoy the summer lettuce as much as we do. We are giving extra big basil bunches and more garlic, in the hope that you can all make pesto to freeze for later in the year. It is one of our favorite things to enjoy during the winter months and holds its flavor superbly. Or you can use it now for a pesto potato salad, yum.  Check out the recipes below and enjoy the share… Autumn and Brian

“Like much good poetry, pesto is made of simple stuff. It is simply fresh basil, garlic, cheese, and olive oil hand ground into sauce. There is nothing more to it than that, but every spoonful is loaded with the magic fragrances of the Riveria…. In Genoa, they use equal quantities of Parmesan cheese and of a special, mildly tangy Sardinian cheese made of sheep’s milk.  the Romano pecorino cheese available here is considerably sharper than the Sardo Pecorino. You must therefore increase the proportion of Parmesan to pecorino, or you will throw the fine equilibrium of flavors in pesto out of balance. A well rounded pesto is never made with all Parmesan or all pecorino. The old, traditional recipes do not mention pine nuts or butter. But modern pesto invariably includes them, and so does this recipe.” Marcella Hazan, The Classic Italian Cookbook

Blender Pesto by Marcella Hazan, The Classic Italian Cookbook

2 cups fresh basil
½ cup olive oil
2 Tbls pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
1 tsp salt
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbls freshly grated pecorino chesse
3 Tbls butter, softened to room temperature

Put the basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic cloves, and salt in the blender and mix at high speed. Stop from time to time and scrape the ingredients down toward the bottom of the blender cup with a rubber spatula.

When the ingredients are evenly blended, pour into a bowl and beat in the two grated cheese by hand. (This is not much work, and it results in more interesting texture and better flavor than you get when you mix in the cheese in the blender.) When the cheese has been evenly incorporated, beat in the softened butter.

Before spooning the pesto over the pasta, add to it a tablespoon or so of hot water in which the pasta has boiled.

Heirloom Tomatoes (all purpose, slicers, & salad)
Arugula
Frisee
Beets -1 lb bulk
German White Garlic
Cubanelle Peppers
Salsa Verde box (chiles, tomatillos, onions, and more)

We have really needed the dry weather over this past week and it has allowed us to get lots of work done. I was noticing though how beautiful everything is around the farm even though it is mid-summer and so hot, thanks to the difficult three months of rain. The heat has changed our work pattern a bit, our days are split between super early mornings and long evenings of work, but it is better than working through midday when it is unbearable. Besides all our never ending produce work, animals have begun to take a bigger role over the past week. Two weeks ago we received our day old broad breasted bronze turkeys poults and red ranger chicks, then more chicks this week, and just yesterday our Muscovy mama duck hatched out nine beautiful ducklings. Plus one of our broody hens mysteriously hatched out two baby chicks a few weeks ago without any of us noticing and now we have two mini chickens that seem fully wild.  It is the season for having babies and they are so very lovely, albeit lots of work. Soon many of these little ones will be out on pasture fertilizing our fields and finding lots of good things to eat.

For the share, we continue to give lots of tomatoes while the plants are bountiful. Many of our heirloom tomatoes have started producing more regularly (amana orange, spears Tennessee green, hillbilly flame, carbon, golden king of Siberia, brandywine, and more) so you will get some nice slicers in the share. We have been using the red determinates for cooking and they have been delicious. Although not paste tomatoes, they are great used for a quick fresh pasta sauce, roasted with veggies, or stewed. We hope you enjoy the arugula and frisee (it is hard to grow fresh salad greens right now)  as well as our super delicious cubanelle peppers (use raw or cooked). Please checkout the simple salsa verde recipe below, to accompany your salsa verde box.  Enjoy the share. Brian and Autumn

Salsa De Tomate Verde, Cocida (Cooked Green Tomato Sauce) by Diana Kennedy The Art of Mexican Cooking

This recipe makes about 2 ¼ cups. Sometimes I will use jalapenos instead of serranos, or use a little onion to replace the garlic and if I have a little extra time, I will broil the tomatillos and chiles for 10 minutes instead of simmering in water, for added flavor.

1 pound Tomatillos , rinsed, husks removed
4 Serranos
2 Tbls Rough Chopped Cilantro
1 Garlic Clove
1 ½ Tbls safflower oil
Salt to taste

Put the tomate verde and chiles into a pan, cover with water, and bring to a simmer; continue cooking until the tomate verde is soft but not falling apart – about 10 minutes, depending on size. Remove from the heat. Strain, reserving 1/3 cup of the cooking water. Put the reserved cooking water into a blender, add the chiles, cilantro and garlic, and blend until almost smooth. Add the tomate verde and blend for 10 seconds, no more, to make a fairly smooth sauce. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the sauce and reduce over high heat until it thickens and seasons – about 8 minutes. Add salt to taste.

Potatoes (Nicola, sangre, or kerr’s pink)
Tomatoes (all purpose, slicers, & salad)
Sungold Cherry Tomatoes
Red Creole Onions
Genovese Basil
Salad Greens (lettuce, baby chard, or arugula)
Carrots & Celery

Long week. So much to do. Start seedlings for the fall and tend to them so the bugs cannot destroy them. Prep crop land (although it has been too wet) for direct seeding and transplants for the fall and winter. Plant cover crops of sorghum sudan grass, iron and clay peas, millet, or buckwheat in our open crop areas. Weed. Manage our current summer crops, by fending off bugs and disease as well as feeding to keep them healthy. Raising young ducks, turkeys, and chickens for fall harvest. Collecting eggs. Harvesting. Then more harvesting and weeding and harvesting yet again. We harvested tomatoes for many hours this past week and for that we are thankful, but this is truly the time when everything culminates and we just cannot stop. Our bush hog (a large mower implement for the tractor) is out of commission this week and we are up to our necks in grass around the farm as well as weeds in our finished crop areas, things are growing inches every day. This is really the wrong time to do without this one piece of equipment or any of them for that matter, but we just keep working and enjoying the breeze when it blows through or some shade from the clouds or a successful harvest. 

Here are two Basil recipes from our friends at the Kitchen Garden, a farm in Massachusetts where Brian worked a few years ago.  Basil can often be limited to pesto or as a garnish, but we love it and love looking for ways to use it. Although we are not growing sweet corn or shelling beans, they are being sold by many farmers locally and are deliciously in season right now. Enjoy the summer and this week’s share… Autumn and Brian

Corn, Tomato and Basil Salad – from the Kitchen Garden

This works well with chopped tomatoes or cherry tomatoes!

3-6 ears sweet corn
1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
few sprigs basil
cider or red wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Cut the corn kernels off the cob into a bowl and mix with tomatoes. Tear the basil into the bowl and dress with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. This is the essence of summer!

Soupe au Pistou

This recipe makes enough soup for 8, so feel free to reduce quantities to suit your needs. Or make a big batch and freeze half. The beauty of soup is you can use whatever you have on hand and omit what you don’t.

10 garlic cloves, peeled and quartered lengthwise
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 medium onions, diced
4 medium carrots, cubed
1 lb. potatoes, cubed
1 cup fresh shell beans
bouquet garni (bay leaf, thyme, parsley)
1 cup zucchini, cubed
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 cup green beans, chopped in ½ inch rounds
salt and pepper
1 recipe pistou
½ cup grated Parmesan
Pistou
4 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper
2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

In a stockpot, gently cook the onions and garlic in oil until soft. Add carrots, potatoes, shell beans and bouquet garni and cook gently, stirring, for 10 minutes. Add the zucchini, tomatoes and green beans along with 8 cups of cold water and simmer gently uncovered until the shell beans are tender, about 20 minutes. Add additional water if the soup becomes too thick. Season with salt and pepper. While the soup is cooking prepare the pistou by placing all ingredients in a food processor and blending slowly while adding the oil. To serve, ladle the soup into a bowl, swirl in a generous teaspoon of pistou and sprinkle with cheese.