Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - June 26, 2025

Fresh Today… Potatoes, Tomatoes, Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Carrots, Lettuce, Garlic, Green Onions, Red or Yellow Onions, Dill Seed Heads, Lemon Basil, Anise Hyssop, Nectarines & Apricots; Flowers – Sweet Annie Artemisia, Zinnias

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 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt, or more to taste

¼ teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground

2 Tablespoon 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.

Taste of Summer: Easy Refrigerator Pickles

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups cucumbers sliced, or cut into spears. 

1 1/2 cups water                                                                            

3 tablespoons white vinegar                                         

1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt                       

4 garlic cloves lightly crushed

2 teaspoons black peppercorns

1/2 cup fresh dill sprigs  

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes optional

Directions:       

• In a large bowl, mix the water, vinegar, salt, garlic, peppercorns and crushed red pepper flakes (if using).

• Fill two pint-sized jars with the cucumbers and dill sprigs

• Pour the brine over the cucumbers in each jar.

• Seal the jars and store in refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving. Store up to two weeks. (from Sara of dinneratthezoo.com)

Summer Squash Quick Breads…

Any of our summer squash can be used for zucchini bread. To match the lemon-yellow color, instead of green zucchini, I like to use yellow squash. It blends in, so you can even fool a picky eater.

Lemon Zucchini Bread

2 cups flour                       

1 ½ cups sugar                 

½ tsp. baking soda          

1 tsp. baking powder       

½ tsp.  salt                               

3 eggs

2 cups grated zucchini

¾ cups oil

Zest and 2 tsp. of juice from one lemon

* Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. In a separate large bowl beat the eggs and add in the zucchini, oil and lemon juice and zest, mix well. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix gently to moisten. Pour the batter into a prepared pan and bake for about 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Metaphors of Soil and Soul ...

Hope That Does Not Disappoint

Cindi J & Keith F Martin

The dill, celery, and cilantro have flowered and gone to seed. Once green and compact in form, the plants now reach rangy yellow and orange shoots toward an expansive blue sky. Their growth spurt resembles the awkward adolescent who has outgrown her cherubic body, seemingly overnight. She now reaches into the blue beyond, a teen tornado full of sound and fury driven by youthful energy and palpable uncertainty. Like adolescents, bolting vegetables are wild, colorful, and determined; they are restless but full of life, beauty, and promise!

It is natural to look at rows of tall, unruly plants (or teens) and feel intimidated by their size and strength, feel overwhelmed by their resistance and the effort required to uproot them to prepare the rows for new plantings. Yes, valuable time and energy are spent in removing spent vegetation, but there are great benefits: colorful flowers for decorating the dining table, seeds for sowing next year, space for growing the next crop.

Are you facing a new season of life but feeling rather spent? Are you unsettled, uncertain, reaching, and stretched out of shape? Without realizing it, you may be bolting. That means you are preparing to produce beautiful flowers to adorn your surroundings and hope-filled seeds  to grow your influence in ways you cannot now imagine. Remember your unsettled teen years?  Stay the course! Teens do become adults, eventually. 

". . . we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."   Romans 5:2b-5