Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - July 2, 2026

Fresh Today… Tomatoes, Green Beans, Summer Squash, New Potatoes, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Green Onions, Rosemary, Basil, Dill & Dill Heads, Zinnias, Plums & Valencia Oranges

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

Summer is all about tomatoes and basil. I mix the two together with salt, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil and put it on crostini, on pizza, on grilled eggplant or squash, or as a salad by itself. The two even grow well together. In the pasta salad recipe today, I added artichoke hearts and kalamata olives with fresh mozzarella to the tomatoes and basil. You can use marinated artichokes and mozzarella, if you have them, but be careful with your salt, you might need to add less. Make sure to taste, you can always add more, but you can’t take it away.

Pasta Salad with Tomatoes and Basil

½ pound penne pasta, cooked until al dente

1 cup cherry tomatoes halved, or large tomatoes

cut into a large dice

1 cup mini fresh mozzarella balls

½ cup basil leaves, gently chopped or torn

½ cup chopped artichoke hearts

¼ cup chopped kalamata olives

2 teaspoons red or white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

*  Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until done. Remove the pasta from the water and let cool slightly. Add the pasta to a large mixing bowl and combine with the remaining ingredients. Stir to mix and taste. Add salt and pepper as needed.

Celebrating the USA – Happy 250^th Birthday!

250 years of liberty and nationhood are worth celebrating. Happy 250th, USA, and happy 4^th of July, 2026!

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Using what you have…

I love the Japanese chili-garlic edamame served as an appetizer at sushi bars. Since we don’t grow edamame, I love to make this with green beans which have a similar texture and taste. Eating local is all about learning to use what we have.

Chili Garlic Green Beans

1-pound green beans, ends trimmed                

2 cloves garlic, minced    

1 tablespoon olive oil

¼ cup water                       

½ teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce

1 tablespoon mayonnaise 

2-3 drops toasted sesame seed oil

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

*  In a large sauté pan with a lid add the beans, garlic, oil, water and salt. Heat covered over high heat until boiling, reduce the heat to medium and stir the beans around to even out the cooking. Place the lid on and steam for 2-3 minutes until crisp-tender. Remove from the heat and let cool with the lid off. In a small bowl, combine the sriracha, mayonnaise, toasted sesame oil. Remove the green beans from any remaining liquid saving the garlic with the beans. Toss the beans with the sriracha mayo and the sesame seeds. Refrigerate or enjoy right away.

Metaphors of Soil and Soul…

The Pain in the Thin

Cindi J Martin

Plum, apricot, and peach tree limbs this time of year bow down with crowded clusters of hard, green fruit that must be thinned for the sake of harvest. The practice of thinning, called cleaning in John’s Gospel, is always a heart-rending sacrifice. Despite how healthy cleaning sounds, when I began our gardening venture, I asked my trusted farmer friend John to the ranch to relieve my anxiety about knocking down promising fruit. It seemed to me a waste of effort and growth, until he explained the effects of not cleaning – broken limbs, distressed trees, undersized and diseased fruit.

Intellectually I understood the value of the practice, but a familiar pain unsettled my heart when he said to discard enough fruit so that those remaining were a fist apart.  “So much?” I winced in disbelief. Uncertain and wavering, I needed his encouragement to release my hold – my control - and his reassurance to muster courage to begin a practice that would discard so much fruit.  Fear and doubt lingered, but as directed, I clenched my fist and thinned, knocking promising fruit to the ground below.  After a few years of training with Farmer John and seeing the benefits in fruit and trees, my confidence in thinning is assured.

Faith in God and His Word grows in a comparable way – by trust and practice.  People of great faith often speak of fear and doubt coexisting with faith.  They say they built confidence in God by enduring the tension between belief and unbelief one experience at a time. Emily Dickenson wrote, “We both believe, and disbelieve a hundred times an hour, which keeps Believing nimble.”  She uses the present participle of the verb believe - Believing - to show faith is active and present even though fear or doubt are felt. Recall the desperate father’s appeal to Jesus to deliver his demon possessed son; he pleaded, “I do believe, help my unbelief.” The LORD works through and despite the obvious tension.

Thinning makes room for fruit to mature.  When the fruit of our effort is small, tasteless, or diseased, perhaps we are not thinning the excess we have crowded onto our limbs.  Trying to shoulder too much hinders growth, breaks our limbs, and diminishes our yields. Painful as it is, dropping promising fruit to the ground so that what remains can mature and fully ripen requires enormous, yet nimble, faith – faith that goes out on a limb.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.”   John 15