Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - March 19, 2026

Fresh Today… Fennel, Spinach, Carrots, Arugula, Lettuce Mix, Peas, Kale, Beets, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Radishes, Celery, Dill, Parsley, Cilantro, Lemons & Oranges

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

The warm weather this week is asking for a crisp salad. This fennel salad combines our arugula, celery, herbs and oranges for a refreshing side dish. Remove the green stalks and trim the bottom of the fennel bulb. Cut the bulb in half and then cut out the core as this is tougher and more fibrous. Use a mandoline or food processor to slice the fennel as thin as possible against the grain.  Letting the fennel sit with the dressing for about 15 minutes softens it a bit, and lets the flavor of the dressing soak in. If desired add some feta or goat cheese to the salad right before serving.

Arugula-Fennel-Orange Salad

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon honey

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 minced garlic clove

1 medium fennel bulb, sliced into thin

    strips, about 1 cup

4-5 cups arugula

¼ cup chopped fresh herbs

1-2 celery ribs, thinly sliced across

     the grain

1 orange, peeled and sliced

* In a mixing bowl combine the dressing ingredients, olive oil, honey, lemon juice, salt, pepper and garlic, mix well. In a large bowl toss the fennel with the dressing and let it marinate for 15 minutes. Then add in the arugula, herbs, celery and orange, giving it a gentle toss. Serve right away.

How and Why We Serve – WCM & WCG

We received a call from a heart-broken parent seeking help for her hurting 6-year-old child who was sexually abused by her father.  These are precisely the people that Wellspring Counseling serves. Skilled professional child counselors are limited in number and those in practice are booked out for months. We reach out for support to our network of trusted professional therapists with whom we have developed relationships over the last 21 years. Cindi phoned a licensed child therapist and former Wellspring Counseling intern who graciously rearranged her tight schedule to provide care for the wounded child and brokenhearted mother.

Thank you, Subscribers, for your faithful contributions to WCM with purchases of WCG produce and you, Volunteers, for faithfully working the fields and offering your time, effort, and talent with remarkable care and love. This is how you bind up wounds and bring healing to the hurting, and this family is so grateful!   

Gratefully,

Cindi J Martin

Wellspring Counseling Ministries.

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

                           Psalm  147:3

Simple Dinner Idea…

This pasta dish comes together as fast as you can boil water and cook the pasta. I used our spinach and carrots, but you can change the vegetables from week to week with whatever is in our basket, just account for individual cooking times. Add vegetables to the pan earlier, then mix in leafy greens at the end.

Spring Pasta

8 ounces dry pasta                         

2 Tbsp olive oil                                

2-4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced     

¼ tsp red pepper flakes                

1 cup shredded carrots                 

4-6 cups spinach, washed and chopped

½ tsp salt

¼ cup dry white wine (or substitute

3 Tbsp water & 1 Tbsp lemon juice)

¼ cup cream

½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese,

plus more for garnish

* Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, 7 to 9 minutes. Reserve ½ cup of the cooking water, drain the pasta, and set it aside. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a very large, high-sided skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally, about 2-3 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until reduced by about half, 2-4 minutes. Add the reserved pasta water and cream. Bring to a boil. Stir in the cooked pasta, spinach, salt, and pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese. Serve right away.

Metaphors of Soil and Soul …

Stinging Nettle

Ronda May Melendez & Keith F Martin

Weeding sun-warmed rows this week, I was reminded of a painful reality. Unseen forces - forces we think we have learned to manage – can cause startling pain. “Who is the instructor?” you ask. Stinging nettle! In past newsletters, I have extolled its health benefits, but not today. Though stinging nettle leaves are useful when handled properly, they are  painful when encountered unexpectedly. Today, I focus on the sting.

I had not seen stinging nettle in the garden for some time. Besides, I thought my limbs were properly protected to engage any weeds in battle; I wore long sleeves, long pants, thick socks, rubber boots, and I had gloved up. What I had not considered, however, was how my movement among the plants would expose a vulnerability. Focused mainly on my pulling, I set myself up for the strike when glove and sleeve parted ever so slightly, tender wrist was exposed, and contact made - sting, pain, OUCH!

It took mere moments to identify the unseen culprit, its familiar pain instantly betraying the source. That is also what happens in life when we interact with others. While engaged with friends or family, we unexpectedly feel a familiar sting to our tender heart that holds a lingering hurt. Nettles are there lurking – innuendo, teasing, criticism - yet they elude our immediate notice, like nettles unseen in the garden. Knowing our vulnerability, we had “armored up” for the encounter, but somehow a nettle finds a chink in our armor and inflames a still sore wound.

My stinging garden and relationship reminder is two-pronged: 1) Armor up and assess the scene for nettles that could inflict pain. 2) Be mindful of vital protections that may slip out of place during engagement, leaving tender areas – wounds, doubts, fears, failures, and faults – of the heart exposed. I need not avoid the source of the nettles, but I must properly gird my limbs and diligently guard my heart from their sting.

“Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”    Ephesians 6:13-17