Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - December 11, 2025

Fresh Today… Butternut Squash, Arugula, Turnips, Carrots, Rutabagas, Peas, Cauliflower, Kale, Lettuce, Dill, Parsley & Pomegranates

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

This week we have more peppery arugula, lettuce, and kale to help you eat more healthy greens. The fresh herbs, parsley, and dill add brightness when finishing rich soups and sauces. Root veggies like carrots, turnips, and rutabagas are at their sweetest roasted in today’s sheet pan dinner. Alternatively, steam or boil then mash these root vegetables for a cozy side dish replacing traditional mashed potatoes.

Roasted Veggie

& Kale Sheet Pan Dinner

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed

3 medium carrots, sliced into coins

2 medium turnips or 1 large rutabaga,

peeled and cubed

1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 bunch kale, stems removed and

torn into pieces

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

* Preheat the oven to 425°F. Spread the butternut squash, carrots, turnips or rutabaga, and cauliflower on a large sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Toss everything well so the vegetables are coated, then roast for about 25–30 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until tender and lightly browned. Add the torn kale to the pan, tossing it gently with the roasted vegetables, and return to the oven for another 7-10 minutes until the kale is just wilted and slightly crisp at the edges. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with fresh parsley, and serve warm.

Relishing Christmas

Celebrate the colors of Christmas by using red onion and/or red bell pepper to make this deliciously tangy sweet Green & Red Relish, the favorite burger condiment of Nancy and Dave Berrens.

Sweet Green & Red Relish

8 cups chopped green tomatoes or tomatillos

2 chopped green bell peppers

2 cups chopped onion

1 pint vinegar

3 cups sugar

½ cup pickling spices (from Winco bulk foods)

¼ tsp. pickling or kosher salt

* Place pickling spices in a paper coffee filter and tie with butcher string.  Place ingredients in pot and bring to boiling, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.  Remove spice bag.   Place in 4 sterilized pint canning jars. Bring water to boiling in a canner and water bath 5 minutes or simply cool jars and refrigerate. Enjoy on burgers, sausages, hot dogs or as a sweet and tangy Christmas salsa with pita or tortilla chips.

Warm Wilted Salad

Winter isn’t exactly salad season—we’re not chasing crisp and cooling flavors. But when you still want your greens, this skillet salad brings that familiar dressing-like tang, allows you to cook the peas and garlic, then is simply served straight from the pan.

Lemon-Herb Pea & Arugula Skillet Salad

2 tablespoons olive oil     

1 cup peas                           

2 cloves garlic, minced      

4 packed cups arugula.     

2 tablespoons chopped dill

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

* Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, then add the garlic and peas and cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring frequently, until the peas are heated through and the garlic is fragrant but not browned. Turn off the heat and add the arugula, dill, parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt, mixing well so everything is evenly coated, then taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve right away

Metaphors of Soil and Soul… 

Unhurried God

Cindi J Martin

While pulling weeds among the cabbage rows, I remembered something Anna told me long ago when we planted our first winter garden. She said certain plants - cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower - require sufficient space to produce a mature head. Being a city girl, I had never seen broccoli or cauliflower grow from seed to a fully crowned head, so I had no reference to frame “sufficient space.” Wow, these plants are large! Each easily spans six to seven square feet in area. They first extend luxuriant layers of leaves long before they show their first white or purple flowered heads of beauty. Though these outer leaves are edible, which I never knew, we harvest only the most flavorful flower and toss those broad, life-sustaining leaves into the compost pile to nourish the next season’s growth.

Gardening has made me think more about PROCESS in life rather than just PRODUCE from life. I could write a book on that, but suffice it to say, there is purpose in waiting for things to mature and ripen. What in your life seems to be taking too much time to reach fulfillment? Are you frustrated because layers are unfolding slowly but you are focused solely on the arrival of the final product? Perhaps it’s time to refocus and make time to notice the sustaining beauty in the process. When it comes to Christmas shopping, many of us make the gift our loved one receives at Christmas the focus of our shopping. Maybe it’s time to notice and value the layers in the process of identifying, choosing, and preparing the most fitting gift for each loved one.

While Christmas Day is an event of great joy throughout the world, so ought to be Advent, the time we make “sufficient space” for remembering the purpose and promised joy of His Coming. Making room in our hearts to receive and enjoy His birth into our world is a luxuriant, layered process that takes time, sometimes even a lifetime, but God is in no hurry to grow things of beauty; He gave His life to that very end.  

“There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.  He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”   John 1:9-13