My Co-op Farm Visit and Courgette, Pea & Mint Soup | Rebel Recipes (2024)

A beautiful green soup made with courgette, peas and mint. Full of summer flavours. Top with a vibrant pesto made with broccoli and pak choi.

Last week I had the great pleasure of visiting a lovely farm in Worcester called MWW as a guest of the Co-op. MWW have been farming on the current land at Severn Valley for 27 years. So, celebrating the best of British seasonal produce, they invited me on a behind-the-scenes farm tour of MWW. What a treat!

I grew up in south Shropshire in a tiny village. A rural and predominantly agricultural area. Lots of my friends grew up on small holdings or farms, so I love and feel at home in that environment. MWW is a large but very attractive farm, with big and spacious fields in the beautiful Worcester countryside. The sun was out as we bombed around the lanes to each field to see the crops.

MWW is very much based on the traditional mixed farm principles with vegetable cropping to provide a healthy nutrient rich rotation. MWW grow a broad mix of vegetables such as legumes (peas, broad, runner and dwarf beans), brassicas (purple sprouting, pak choi, choi sum) and alliums (salad onion, jumbo onions), asparagus and butternut squash and the more traditional cereals.

The nutrient rich soil in the Severn Valley, along with the sheltered micro-climate, allows the farm to maximise the British growing season to the full. All aspects of production, from seed to Co-op shelves, are controlled at MWW.

It was fascinating to see the crop rotation in practice and the speed to pick to packing to hitting the Co-op shelves was incredible. I.e. the same or next day. Which means super fresh veggies!

I love the fact that Co-op hero seasonal home-grown vegetables and you could certainly see the love, care and attention the team at MWW invests in growing the best and freshest produce possible.

The team kindly gave me some wonderful fresh veg to take away, a big box of courgettes, runner beans, tender stem broccoli, pak choi etc etc all looking super fresh and juicy. This gorgeous box of veg has inspired me to make two delicious seasonal dishes.

My first; courgette, pea and mint soup with tenderstem broccoli and pak choi pesto on fresh bread. I don’t think it gets much better than that. Fresh greens bursting with flavour and goodness.
The recipe is super easy. All you need to do is fry some onions and garlic until they are beatifically caramelised. Add in the courgette and soften, then the peas, stock and lots of fresh mint.

As you know, I am pretty obsessed with packing as many veg into my meals as possible, so I made tenderstem pesto to be dolloped onto sourdough toast. I added lots of nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavour and b-vits. And as my box of goodies included some pak choi, I popped a handful into the mix as well. Delicious!

I hope you enjoy my fresh and delicious recipe! I will have another one for you soon.

I would like to thank the team at MWW for a lovely day in the country showing me around their lovely farm. And Co-op for the opportunity.