Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - August 8, 2024
Garden Fresh Today… Lemon & Armenian Cucumbers, Cherry Tomatoes, Swiss Chard, Sweet Peppers, Summer Squash Variety, Eggplant, Red Onions, Green Onions, Garlic, Parsley, Basil, Dill, Plums, Pluots, Melons, & Zinnias
Using Your Produce… by Julie Moreno
The bell peppers are ready. They take a few weeks longer than their relative, tomatoes. When we grow them, they never seem to have the perfect shape that happens when peppers are grown in a commercial hot house. I came across a recipe where they cut the peppers lengthwise instead of cutting the top off. When you cut them like this, it doesn’t matter the shape, you end up with two halves that can both be filled with your favorite stuffing. This recipe uses rice, meat and cooked veggies as the filling, but you can stuff them with your favorite cooked items, like breadcrumbs or beans, tofu or more vegetables.
Stuffed Bell Peppers
4 bell peppers, cut in half lengthwise,
Stems left on and seeds removed
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 green onions, sliced, white and
green parts separated
1 small zucchini, diced
1 large or 2 small tomatoes, diced
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon salt
½ pound leftover meat (chicken, pork
or beef) diced small, or cooked
ground beef or turkey
1 cup cooked rice, any kind (or cooked
grain or beans)
1 tablespoon basil, chopped
1/2 cup cheese
* Preheat your oven to 350° F. Cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise and remove seeds and membrane. In a large skillet over medium high heat, add olive oil and sauté the garlic and white parts of the green onions for one minute. Add the diced squash and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the tomatoes, oregano, salt, meat and cooked rice. Heat thoroughly and simmer for 2 minutes. Stir in the basil and then, drain off any excess liquid and fill the peppers with the mixture and top with a sprinkle of cheese. Place them in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the peppers are soft. Top with additional chopped basil and serve.
Meet, Greet, and Eat
While Cindi Reads from Choosing Intimacy
Join us at Barnes and Noble on McHenry in Modesto for a Saturday afternoon celebration of Cindi’s labor of love Choosing Intimacy. She will read aloud select excerpts and sign copies of her book for your personal library. There will be refreshments – Tea, Kaffee und Kuchen (either plum cake, scones, or Kahlua brownies) for you to enjoy. Following her reading, there will be a Q & A time for you to encourage Cindi to draw back the curtain and candidly share the most intimate thoughts and experiences that inspired her to write Choosing Intimacy. We look forward to seeing you there, and we are so proud of you, Cindi!
Cherry Tomatoes…
Cherry tomatoes are super sweet and full of flavor. Slow roasting will concentrate flavors, break down the skins, infuse the olive oil with flavor, and soften the garlic cloves. Enjoy these tomatoes over pasta or scooped up with a toasted baguette.
Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
(adapted from www.honest-food.net)
2 baskets cherry tomatoes, stems removed
1 head garlic, cloves peeled and separated
Salt
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary, thyme, basil, or oregano
* Preheat the oven to 225°F. Remove the stems and arrange the tomatoes in a 9x13 pan. Scatter the garlic cloves among them. Pour the olive oil over everything and sprinkle everything with salt. Place in the oven for about 2 hours. When the tomatoes have collapsed sprinkle the herbs over everything and turn off the heat and leave the pan in the oven. Once everything has returned to room temperature, pack into containers. Save any extra oil to season salad, other vegetables, rice or beans.
Metaphors of Soil and Soul…
Tomatoes Have Boundaries?
by Ronda May Melendez & Keith F Martin
Tomato vines have clear boundaries. They know innately what they will or won’t do. When their fruit is ripe but remains unpicked, they slow or stop fruit production. That’s sensible; why work harder to produce more when what is available is overlooked or undervalued and left hanging? Ripe fruit is heavy, takes up valuable vine space, burdens the vine structure, and competes for vital resources needed to reinforce the vine or start new fruit. It makes no sense to produce more when demand has ceased, supply is in surplus, and infrastructure is overwhelmed. In The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith could have written these words about supply and demand: The ‘Invisible Hand’ that guides the economy also shapes the tomato.
If tomato vines inherently know how to set clear boundaries, then why do we find it so difficult to do the same? Why do we not readily admit when others overlook or undervalue the fruit we have produced? Why do we continue producing to our detriment rather than redirecting our efforts to reinforce our vine? Conversely, why is it so difficult to acknowledge the fruit of others when they have given so much of themselves to produce it? Their vine has produced good fruit, they offer it freely for our enjoyment, yet we overlook or undervalue it and leave it to die on the vine.
After my time with the tomatoes, I walked away challenged and cautioned. I need to recognize the gifts offered by others and take them freely, but not for granted. Their good fruit required significant effort to produce and should be received gratefully. I am cautioned to not redouble my production but redirect my effort when ripe fruit remains unused. I need to willingly suspend my production, refocus my energies to reinforce the core vine, and prepare for future growth when it’s wanted. If a tomato vine can do it, so can we! It makes sense. Boundaries shape the ground rules for cooperative relationships by establishing the expectations for mutual respect of each other’s fruit, effort, and vine.
“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.”
Galatians 6:9-10
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