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Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - January 30, 2025


Fresh Today… Butternut Squash, Carrots, Celery, Broccoli, Kale, Watermelon Radishes, Lettuce, Spinach, Parsnip, Parsley, Rosemary, Lemons, Tangerines, Grapefruit, Blood & Navel Oranges



Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

 

I was looking for a new recipe for butternut squash soup, but all seemed similar to what I have made in the past. Many called for cutting the squash into cubes, roasting in the oven, then pureeing. I do agree that this will give more surface area to the squash, caramelizing and adding flavor, but if you don’t have the knife skills and strength to cut the squash, this process is a lot of work, to end up with it all blended in the end. To make things easier, cut the squash in half and roast it, but if that is still too hard, roast the squash whole and cut it open after cooking when it is soft. It will take a little longer in the oven, but the process is so much easier. Add flavor in the soup pot, with herbs and spices. Until I find the right squash recipe, here is my favorite pasta salad. We have most of the ingredients in the garden right now.


Pasta Salad

with Broccoli and Carrots

 

½ pound dry pasta, short cuts like

     penne or bow tie or corkscrew

1 Tbsp. red or white wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, minced

2-3 Tbsps. chopped parsley

3 Tbsps. extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

½ tsp fresh ground pepper to taste

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.



Shedding Voluntears…

 

Help Wanted! Longing to get your hands dirty, enjoy nature, and learn more about gardening? Join the Wellspring Pickin’ Crew that picks, prepares, and packs WCG fresh vegetables for delivery. We gather at 8:30 AM Thursdays for a devotional and then set off into the fields to harvest. We usually finish picking and packing by noon. Of course, all work and no play make volunteering a dull task, so we laugh and talk and share our hearts and lives generously. If you are longing for connection and looking for a place to grow, join the WCG Pickin’ Crew to get your hands dirty and your heart restored!

 

Besides needing volunteers, we are also looking for a paid staff person who can work 24 hours a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  Do you know someone who knows gardening, seeks rewarding part-time work, and is willing to work year-round in all weather conditions? Please have them call Cindi at 209-607-1887. Help us if you can!


Help us if you can, we’re feeling down

And we do appreciate your comin’ round

Help us get our veggies out the ground

Won't you please, please help us!




Massaged Kale…

 

Kale can make a great make-ahead salad when treated properly. Like coleslaw, but with a little extra effort, massage the dressing into the kale leaves, then let it sit. This treatment breaks down the kale and when combined with some sweet, dried fruit, nuts and cheese, makes a great salad.

 

Kale Salad with Toasted Nuts, Dried Cherries, & Parmesan

 

1 bunch kale, thinly sliced                

½ tsp salt                                                     

Juice of 1 lemon, about 1 Tbsp        

1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil                      

1 Tbsp maple syrup or honey          

¼ cup lightly toasted pine nuts or almonds

¼ cup dried cherries, cranberries, or currants

¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheeses

Fresh ground black pepper


* Place the sliced kale in a large bowl and toss with the salt, lemon juice and olive oil.  Massage the mixture with your fingers until all the kale is well-coated and looks a bit darker in color.  Add the rest of the ingredients and toss to coat. Give it a taste and add more salt and pepper, if desired. Let it sit 30 minutes, if possible, then serve.

 


Metaphors of Soil and Soul…


Can These Bones Live?

Ronda May Melendez & Keith F Martin

 

Garlic has been my brittle tutor this week. Weeks ago, we gathered the withered heads left over from last year’s harvest and gave them a proper burial. Most cooks simply discard the dry fragments, which are useless for flavoring a sauce or stew. Once juicy and pungent, the now unsavory cloves are best tossed out with the trash…right?

 

While culinary use supports this judgment, our faith in the garlic’s potential emboldens our resolve. Faith, according to Scripture, is “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Dark winter soil provides the tomb required for a spring resurrection. As farmers, we are convinced those dried bodies will revive in the fertile soil, take root, rise in strength, and grow in abundance. We have planted those brittle remains with that assurance; there will be a new harvest of fresh garlic in due season! Now sprouting from barren brown soil new life rises, green and beautiful, to stand in the garden rows.

 

Consider the condition of your body now? Have you lost your juice, your pungency? Do you feel dry, withered, brittle to the bone? Do not worry. What we deem lifeless is of extraordinary value to the LORD. He knows how to take the dead and restore their life. The prophet Ezekiel was shown the restoration of Israel in a vision:

 

“The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord God, You know.’”

 

The LORD commanded Ezekiel to prophesy over the dry and breathless bones:

 

“O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.’”

 

The dry bones rattled and came together; then sinews, flesh, and skin covered the bones, but there was no life. Ezekiel then spoke to the breath:

 

“‘Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.’

 

Breath – Hebrew ruach, which also means spirit or wind - entered the forms and the lifeless came alive and stood on their feet, “an exceedingly great army.”  

 

Can these bones live? Yes, brittle, lifeless remains can revive and live in strength and abundance when restored by the Word and Spirit of the LORD.                                   




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