Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - August 6, 2026

Fresh Today… Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Sweet & Bell Peppers, Avocados, Potatoes, Shallots, Carrots, Garlic, Chives, Basil, Apples & Grapes

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

With all the peppers that we have I included a recipe for Shakshuka. This Mediterranean dish poaches eggs in a mixture of simmered peppers, onions and tomatoes. Serve this with toasted bread to scoop up any of the remaining sauce or tortilla chips to give the dish some crunch. If you still have some left and no place to use them, I cut and freeze them for chili recipes in the fall and winter. I vacuum pack them after cutting to avoid freezer burn and portion them so that they are ready to go from the freezer.

Shakshuka

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1 & ½ cups chopped sweet peppers

1 teaspoon salt

2 garlic cloves, peeled, chopped

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp sweet paprika

½ tsp ground cumin

6 medium tomatoes, chopped

½ cup tomato sauce

6 large eggs

¼ cup chopped fresh basil and chives

*  In a large sauté pan over medium heat add the oil, onion and peppers, season with salt and stir occasionally until the onions are translucent about 8-10 minutes. Add the chopped garlic, paprika, and cumin and stir for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 6-8 minutes. Add the eggs and cover until poached until they are cooked to your liking about 5-8 minutes.

Eat Your Vegetables - Subscribers Wanted

We are seeking more subscribers to share the garden’s abundance!  Please spread the word about our fresh produce subscriptions. Word of Mouth – or Testimony of Taste & Tummy - are the best advertisers! Some people invite friends and neighbors to share a subscription if they think they can’t eat all their vegetables! Have you considered giving a family member or friend a healthy gift for a birthday? Happy Birthday, Bro, Now Eat Your Vegetables!

Thank you, Subscribers, for eating your vegetables and for your generous support of WCG the 10 years we have been growing!  Your purchases enable Wellspring Counseling Ministries to support people in need and advance spiritual and mental health here and abroad.

Vegetable Chips…

When we have so much squash, I make these chips in my dehydrator. You can use any of the different varieties. A mandoline is the easiest way to slice the squash. You could also use a food processor.  Regardless of the method that you use to slice the squash try to make the slices a consistent thickness.

Summer Squash Chips

2-4 large zucchini or summer squash

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

*  Slice the squash thin, about 1/8 inch. Place the slices in a large bowl and sprinkle with the seasonings and oil. Mix gently. Place the slices in a single layer in a dehydrator or in a low oven at 225° F for 1-2 hours until crisp. In a dehydrator set at 135°F they will take about 8-10 hours.

Metaphors of Soil and Soul…

Reaching Toward the Light

Ronda May Melendez

I recall a science experiment my children and I did when they were young. We selected two beans, “planted” each in a damp paper towel, and then tucked them into separate jars to germinate. One jar we placed in an area filled with light; the other we placed in utter darkness. We left them undisturbed for the prescribed time but daily checked their progress. What did we find? The bean enveloped in light had unfurled into a vigorous, well-proportioned green seedling, while the bean beset by darkness produced a pallid, spindly, desperate and frail seedling. Such a marked difference! But why?

Both seedlings sprouted quite quickly, nourished by the reserve energy stored in their seed, but the bean growing in darkness was soon struggling. Plants need light to convert carbon dioxide and water into energy (food, fuel), so it is natural for them to reach toward life-sustaining light. Deprived of light, the starving bean’s cells distorted unnaturally as it desperately reached upward to find nourishment. Failing to find life sustaining light, it never thrived, never matured to produce fruit, and did not long survive.

Do you ever find yourself over-extended, desperately in need of energy? I do, at times!  We may be staving for light. Like the desperate bean overcome by the darkness, we can also become distorted and drained by surroundings that provide no nourishment. Reflect on your current situation. Is the present darkness that surrounds you within or beyond your control? Though we are born into darkness, do we prolong its distorting influence by avoiding the light and resisting the truth about ourselves and others? Are we perhaps placing ourselves in settings that intensify the darkness and deprivation? Are we truly as hopeless and helpless as that bean my children and I placed in the darkness?

When we turn from or resist the light, we place ourselves in darkness. There we will desperately reach toward something – and then anything - to nurture our desperate being, but to no avail. We must choose our placement wisely, keeping forefront in our mind a setting’s influence on our outcome - a terminally desperate life or a robust, fruitful life. Without light, we cannot flourish. Without light, our being distorts and cannot mature and bear the fruit that the LORD desires.

      In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind.

     And the Light shines in the darkness,

     and the darkness did not grasp (overcome) it.  John 1:4-5