The Peak of Produce: Farmer’s Soup

I call this Farmer’s Soup because this is what I would make if I could harvest these veggies from my own farm. My farm would be located on a considerably-sized plot of land, and I would spend my days tending the crops in my trusty blue Ford tractor, fishing my backyard pond in a 17’ handmade wood canoe, and scouting whitetail and turkey from my perfectly running 1963 Jeep Gladiator Thriftside truck, after which I would retire to the wrap-around porch on my restored farmhouse to watch the sunset and sip some small-batch bourbon with a lemon wedge and splash of sparkling water. Yes, indeed. Until THAT day arrives, I will continue to purchase my produce from our community farms when I can to make this dish.

Jeep Gladiator used in the movie Tremors. Which makes it even more amazing.

Soup is really an amazing meal—especially compared to a store-bought canned variety. Soup is very economical, yields a ton, and can have ridiculous flavor, particularly with fresh, quality ingredients. If you have kids, they will almost always eat veggies from soup over quickly prepared veggies, and it makes sense—they taste better! There are endless variations you could make on this recipe; it is just stewing fresh veggies together and enjoying the result. Fresh produce is really incomparable to frozen or canned, but get what you can. Fresh corn would be awesome in it, mushrooms could be good, and beef is optional – it adds some protein and flavor. I probably wouldn’t add a watery veggie like squash or zucchini because it would get too mushy. I used a Serrano chili in mine, but you could omit if you do not want a little heat. I used fingerling potatoes in mine purely because we received them in our CSA box – fingerlings are super pricey, so redskins and Yukon golds would also be great. Yukons would probably break down into the soup and thicken it, whereas redskins would retain more of their structure. I don’t cook a lot of russet potatoes because they taste a little like cardboard. A note about the okra: I added it and let the soup simmer for a couple hours; this caused the okra to completely break down into the soup and act as a thickening agent. If you want to keep the okra intact, I would add it in the last 15 minutes to the soup. Or you could add some early and some later….you get the point.