Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - March 7, 2024
Fresh Today… Cabbage, Arugula, Radishes, Spinach, Sprouting Broccoli, Swiss Chard, Celery, Green Onions, Butterhead Lettuce, Carrots, Rosemary, Cilantro, Oranges, Lemons, & Grapefruit
Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno.
Salads are an easy way to combine many of our vegetables in one dish. Different combinations of produce come together with a dressing that balances the fat (olive oil) with acid (vinegar or lemon juice) and salt. In this recipe I added wheat berries. They help make the salad a hearty dish by adding a filling whole-grain carbohydrate. If you don’t have them on hand you could substitute with brown rice or a small, shaped pasta like orzo. The salty feta cheese balances the peppery arugula and radishes.
Wheat Berry Salad
with Arugula and Radishes
½ cup wheat berries
1 cup water
½ teaspoon salt
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 green onion, white and
green parts sliced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 carrot, finely diced
3-4 radishes, finely diced
2 cups lettuce leaves,
washed and chopped
2 cups arugula, washed and chopped
1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper, to taste
¼ cup crumbled feta cheese
* Place the wheat berries, water and ½ teaspoon salt in a saucepan, bring to a boil and let simmer for 60 minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool. Drain the water and add the cooked wheat berries to a large mixing bowl. Toss the wheatberries with the garlic, green onion, and lemon juice. Then add the carrot, radishes, lettuce, arugula, and olive oil. Taste for salt and pepper and add more if desired. Top with feta cheese and eat right away.
Lemon Curd - The Whitehall Inn, Camden, Maine
You’ll remember this beloved nursery rhyme, which has many versions:
Lemon Miss Muffet
Went to her buffet
Craving some curds and a scone;
There came a skilled baker
Lemon curd he did make her
Soon all of her gowns were outgrown!
One cup sugar
Half cup lemon juice
6 egg yolks + 2 eggs whole
2 lemons, zested
* Cook all ingredients in double boiler, stirring constantly until thick and creamy.
** Makes 3 half pints. For lemon mousse, mix 1/3 curd plus 2/3 whipped cream.
Cabbage Salad…
Cabbage makes a great salad base that holds up over time and can stand up to heavier dressings like the mayo in coleslaw. This Asian influenced slaw has an oil and vinegar dressing and an added crunch from a package of ramen noodles.
Cabbage Slaw with Crunchy Noodles
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp honey or sugar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
5 cups shredded cabbage
2 carrots, shredded
¼ cup almonds, toasted
¼ cup thinly sliced green onions
½ teaspoon salt
¼ tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 package instant ramen noodles,
broken into bite-sized pieces
* Combine the oil, vinegar, honey, soy sauce and sesame oil in a large mixing bowl, blend well. To the dressing, add in the cabbage, carrots, almonds, green onion, salt and pepper. Toss to coat the vegetables. Let the salad sit for 20-30 minutes and then toss with the noodles and serve.
Metaphors of Soil and Soul…
Letting Go
Cindi J Martin
There are always seasons of "letting go" in the garden. Walking empty fields, I can't help but feel sorrow. Weeks ago, these rows teemed with heirloom broccoli, cauliflower, and Romanesco flaunting delightful green and purple heads. Those beautiful heads are now harvested, and only shriveled stalks and withered leaves remain. Grieving, I gather the spent vegetation and cast it onto the compost heap.
Releasing a season ended is as essential to garden life as embracing one about to begin. Both releasing and embracing require faith, which the writer of Hebrews calls “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Casting the spent plants onto their burial mound heralds my belief in unseen forces - time, heat, microorganisms, and rot - to transform death into life. In time, the organic matter will be recast as “black gold,” aka compost, the most treasured amendment for restoring depleted soil and raising new life.
Hoping to forestall the sorrow in releasing someone or something beloved, many of us misspend untold time and energies vainly holding on to a season in decline. Denial merely prolongs our pain and precludes our transformation. Mary Magdalene, at the tomb of Christ, best embodies the wrenching struggle to let go of what was and take hold of what is:
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
There will always be sorrow-filled seasons of letting go, painful times when we must cast the withered remains of our hopes, desires, and dreams onto the compost heap. The good news is that God will restore our broken hearts and transform us through our grief. Leo Tolstoy is quoted as saying, “Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.” As we rejoice in the Light and Life Who emerged victorious from a sorrow-sealed tomb, let us embrace our God and Father lovingly, whole-heartedly, and take hold of the promised intimacy realized in Christ ascending.
