Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - June 11, 2026

Fresh Today… Potatoes, Carrots, Tomatoes, Slicing & Lemon Cucumbers, Lettuce Mix, Summer Squash, Celery, Onion, Garlic, Basil, Cilantro, Dill, Parsley, Oranges, Nectarines & Lavender

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

This week we have fresh herbs coming. Dill seed heads are the flowers of the dill plant and the seeds that will form the next generation of plants. The seeds have more intense flavor that the leafy dill weed that we have sent for a few weeks now. The dill seed can be used to flavor vinegar or make pickles. Hyssop is a fragrant herb in the mint family, traditionally used in herbal medicine, cooking, and even spiritual rituals. It has a strong, slightly bitter, minty flavor with hints of licorice or thyme. This week I included a recipe for German potato salad. This flavorful salad can be eaten warm or at room temperature.

German Potato Salad

2 pounds potatoes

4 slices bacon, finely diced

½ cup finely chopped onion

½ cup beef stock

4 Tbsp white vinegar

1 Tsp mustard, Dijon or mild

    German mustard

2 Tbsp oil

1 Tsp sugar

½ Tsp salt, or more to taste

¼ Tsp black pepper, fresh ground

2 Tbsp chopped parsley, or chives

* Boil the potatoes in a large pot covered with an inch of water over high heat until tender, about 20 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes. Meanwhile, cook the bacon over medium heat until crispy. Take out the bacon and set it aside, leave the rendered fat in the pan. Add the onion to the pan and sauté until translucent but not browned, about 3-4 minutes. Add beef broth and bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat and add vinegar, mustard, oil, sugar, salt, and pepper to the onions. Let the potatoes cool slightly so you can handle them. Peel the potatoes. Cut the potatoes into ¼-inch slices or cubes and put them in a large bowl. Pour the onions and liquid over the potatoes. Mix the salad gently then fold in the bacon pieces and parsley. Let the salad sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes before serving so that the potatoes can absorb the flavor of the dressing.

WCM & WCG Thank Phi Gamma Chapter Omega Nu - 𝝮N

A few months ago, Wellspring Charitable Gardens (WCG) was invited to apply for a grant to help us serve the counseling needs of children and families in our community.  Over the years, many of our clinicians have been trained in Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) which provides parenting training and support to families who have foster care children or adopted children in their homes. WCG is collaborating with these families, clinicians, community  volunteers, and agencies to bring a TBRI camp to our small local farm. We need a space to engage the families in educational and therapeutic  outdoor activities. An authentic, life-sized Tipi offered a fun and educational classroom setting, but the cost was significant.  We are so thrilled to announce that Omega Nu has chosen to fund $4,000 of the $5,000 for a traditional high quality, weather resistant, 26’ Pole TiPi that seats 25.  We would welcome your donation to help us complete the amount needed for purchase and installation. We are now getting estimates for an appropriate footing and a qualified construction crew to build it.  Omega Nu, thank you for all that you do to make the dreams of organizations like ours come true.   Gratefully, WCM & WCG Team!

WCG Goes Native 

to offer a Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) Day Camp

for foster care and adoptive families. Training is based upon

Attachment Theory and therapeutic activities that build trust

and parenting competence.

Summer Salad…

This simple salad refreshing. When you prepare the cucumbers, removing the seeds and skin is optional and your choice. Everyone has a personal preference and they all work.

Cucumber Salad 

1-2 cucumbers, peeled and      

    seeds removed if desired       

¼ tsp salt                                       

½ tsp sugar                                         

½ cup sliced red onion   

¼ tsp red chili flakes

2 tsp rice vinegar or white wine

or red wine vinegar

* Cut the cucumber in half from top to bottom and the slice each piece, with the flat side down on your cutting board, into thin half-moons. In a large bowl, combine the cucumber, salt, sugar, red onion, red chili flakes and vinegar. Let stand for 10 minutes and then enjoy.  

Metaphors of Soil and Soul…

Preparing for the Next Season

Cindi J Martin, LCSW

What surprised me most about growing vegetables year-round is how far in advance farmers prepare for the coming growing season.  I often hear others say how discouraged they were with the poor produce from their winter gardens, so they gave up winter gardening.  Their laments remind me of my first failed attempts at planting broccoli and cauliflower – both cool weather crops.  I had planted too late in the season, so as the warm spring weather arrived, they were overrun by pests, failed to develop fully, and flowered before I ever had a chance to enjoy them.  Just recently master gardener Anna Hazen planted out the seed trays in our shade cloth area. Here in the sizzling late spring heat as we are enjoying refreshing cucumbers, squash, basil, and early tomatoes, Anna is already tending broccoli and cauliflower seedlings that will soon fill the fields and provide fall and winter harvests.

Forward thinking and disciplined preparation are keystones to successful seasonal harvests.  Are you now thinking about your next season of life?  What fruit would you like to reap in that season? If you are a senior in high school, are you developing the skills and mindset you will need for a successful career or satisfying marriage?  If you are a mom or dad, have you started preparing for your empty nest and the extra time you will soon have?  For those still toiling through your employment years, are you now planning how to fulfill the dreams you’ve deferred for retirement?  For those of us who are seasoned seniors, have we considered and set in place care arrangements that will allow us to stay in our homes or care for loved ones during the sunset of their and our lives?  

Yes, excessive or compulsive planning for tomorrow can drain us of energy needed for living today, but denial or avoidance of planning today will deprive us of resources needed for tomorrow. We are most productive and fruitful when we find that disciplined balance between living in the present and preparing for the future. Planning and planting ahead for the coming seasons make all the difference in what you will harvest.

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful,

but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it,

afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Romans 12:11