Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - April 23, 2026

Fresh Today… Peas, Swiss Chard, Broccoli, Beets, Cucumber, Spinach, Lettuce Heads, Salad Turnips, Carrots, Radishes, Parsley, Chives & Dill

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

When we have large heads of broccoli, I try to make sure to use the stems and not just eat the florets. Similar to the bagged broccoli slaw at the store, you can make your own by grating it in the food processor. If you don’t have one, you can try a box grater with large holes or just cut up the stems and florets with a knife.

Turnip and Greens Gratin

1 tablespoon butter or oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 turnips, sliced into thin wedges

     or diced small

½ cup water

6-8 cups chopped greens, kale, radish,

     Swiss chard and/or turnip greens

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup cream or half and half or milk

½ cup grated hard cheese, like

     cheddar, Gouda, Gruyere/Swiss,

     or Parmesan, divided

½ cup breadcrumbs

* Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  In a very large sauté pan or Dutch oven cook the butter, garlic and turnips over medium heat until the garlic starts to brown slightly.  Add the water and cover, cook until the turnips are tender about 5-8 minutes.  Add the greens, salt and cream, stir to combine and continue to cook until the greens are wilted.  Turn the heat off and stir in half of the cheese.  In a separate small bowl combine the remaining cheese and the breadcrumbs.  Pour the turnip and greens mixture into a casserole dish and evenly distribute the cheese and breadcrumb mixture over the top.  Cook the casserole in the oven until bubbly about 20 minutes.  Switch the heat to broil and place under the broiler until the top is golden brown. Watch carefully.  Remove from the oven and let rest about 10 minutes before eating.

Garage Sale to Benefit 

Overlooked No Longer

Wendy Miller is hosting a garage sale May 1-2 to benefit Overlooked No Longer, a mission outreach to girls and boys in the Garhwal Himalaya Mountains of India who have suffered abuse and neglect. ONL supports families who built House of Grace to provide loving foster care to children recovering from trauma and needing nurturing for personal growth. Please contact Wendy at (209) 707-6249 if you have goods to donate to show that “These precious children are overlooked no longer!”

“Then Hagar called the name of the LORD who spoke to her

El-Roi, You-Are-God-Who-Sees,

for she said, ‘Have I also here seen Him who sees me?’”

                                                                                           Genesis 16:13

Fresh Spring Salad…

This is one of my favorite pasta salad combinations. It’s perfect to throw together when we have both broccoli and carrots .Create the vinaigrette dressing with wine vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, parsley and garlic, then toss together the pasta with the vegetables, cheese and salami for a hearty side dish.

Pasta Salad with Broccoli and Carrots

½ pound dry pasta, short                     

    cuts like penne or bow tie                

1 tbsp. red or                                          

    white wine vinegar                            

1 tsp Dijon mustard                                

2 green onions, thinly sliced                

1 garlic clove, minced                            

2-3 tablespoons chopped parsley

3 tbsps. extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

½ tsp fresh ground pepper

½ cup mozzarella cheese cubes

8 slices salami, sliced

2 cups broccoli florets

3 carrots, thinly sliced

¼ cup chopped kalamata olives

* Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until done. While the pasta is cooking prepare the vinaigrette by mixing the vinegar, mustard, green onions, garlic, parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper in a very large mixing bowl. Remove the pasta from the water and let cool slightly. Add the pasta to the bowl and combine with broccoli and carrots. Stir and mix well, then gently add the cheese, salami and olives. Taste and add additional salt and pepper if desired. Eat right away or refrigerate and enjoy the next day.

Metaphors of Soil and Soul…

Condition of the Ground 

Keith F Martin

I better understand the garden and the ground we cultivate after learning the difference between soil and dirt. Dirt is ground devoid of nutrients life-promoting organisms plants need to grow; soil is ground replete with life-giving creatures and nutrients that plants need to thrive. Dirt is a lifeless composite of sand, silt, and clay; soil is a living community of fungi, bacteria, protozoa, worms, insects, and myriad others. In short, dirt is dead, soil is alive. Soil nurtures, dirt deprives. The more lifeless the ground, the more demanding the work to make it fruitful.

That difference recalls the garden in Genesis 3. Eden - which means delight - provided ideal ground for Adam and Eve to thrive. There the LORD planted trees good for food and pleasing to the eye. There they were placed to care for Eden and to delight in God’s Presence, but by eating fruit from the sole forbidden tree – the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - Adam and Eve scorned their blessing, the garden’s natural beauty and bounty, their caretaking, their holy image, and the Presence of God.

“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Genesis 3

Cursed ground is hard, unyielding, unfruitful, even hostile. Its cursed condition provides the fitting metaphor for fallen Adam’s (meaning mankind’s) heart toward God. There hostile thorns and thistles grow defiantly. Pitiless, the ground produces fruit grudgingly. In painful toil mankind tills and sows hardened fields and gathers by the sweat of the brow. Then death returns him alone to lifeless, hostile ground, not merely as dirt but as a shallow layer of dirt – dust.

Wonder, though, at God’s amazing grace! He leaves the Garden of Delight to lead Adam through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, but we later expel Him from the Garden of Gethsemane (Oil Press), crucify Him, and place His lifeless body into a garden tomb hewn from rock. Relentless, He rises and invites us to yield our defiant ground to His sufficient work. He can restore hardened hearts - even the most resistant, hostile, lifeless - but we must choose to let the LORD God rework and amend our pitiless ground. In good soil, He replants a Garden of Delight that welcomes His Presence and produces abundant fruit: “But the one sown with seed on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”  Matthew 13:23