Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - May 8, 2025

Fresh Today… Potatoes, Snap Peas, Carrots, Beets, Broccoli, Spring Onions, Cauliflower, Kale, Spinach, Lettuce Heads, Radishes, Turnips, Dill, Cilantro, Oranges & Lemons

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

This time of year, the pickings are slim, as the season changes. Our spring produce is slowing down, and we will need to wait several more weeks before the first summer vegetables are ready. It is definitely salad season, so I have two salad recipes. The creamy dressing combines our dill and roasted beets. The strong flavors of dill and beets are subdued with the yogurt or buttermilk. If you have extra dill at the end of the week, let it dry and save it for later.

Roasted Beet Salad

with Creamy Dill Dressing

3-5 beets

1 teaspoon salt, divided

1 tablespoon oil

fresh ground black pepper

1 tablespoon chopped dill

1-2 teaspoons lemon juice

¼ cup buttermilk or plain yogurt

4-5 cups lettuce greens,

    washed and chopped

2-3 carrots, sliced thin

2-3 radishes, sliced thin

* Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Remove the greens from the beets and reserve for another use. Peel if desired. Slice the beets in half and then place the flat side on a cutting board and slice into half-moon shapes. Toss the slices in a large bowl with ½ teaspoon salt, pepper and oil.  Put them in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until tender. While the beets are cooking prepare the remaining salad items. In a small bowl mix the dressing: dill, lemon juice and buttermilk with ½ teaspoon salt and fresh ground black pepper. Wash and chop the lettuce, carrots and radishes. When the beets are done, remove from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes. In a large mixing bowl add all the vegetables and lightly toss with the dressing. Taste and add additional salt or pepper if desired and serve.

Welcome Back!

The Veggie Vacation has come to a sweet end! Don't they look relaxed, well-rested, and well-rounded? Like all serious vacationers, they put off their diets and put on a few pounds! The WCG Pickin' Crew are here today picking, packing, and delivering those deliciously plump spring vegetables who have enjoyed a bit of fun in the sun!

Meanwhile, our WCG Cultivatin’ Crew has been hard at work battling weeds, prepping fields, and planting tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, squash, eggplant, peas, peppers, and basil in the rows. Summer’s coming and we want your Purple Bags overflowing with fresh summer fare - vegetables, fruit, and herbs - to serve and enjoy. Guten Appetit!

 Dill and Lemon…

Our fresh dill goes perfectly with lemon in this roasted cauliflower salad. If you have them, preserved lemons are a good alternative to the lemon zest, but I understand that these are not an ingredient that most people have on hand.

Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Dill

1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets, about 4-6 cups

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

¼ cup toasted almonds, chopped

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

¼ cup chopped dill

1 green onion, thinly sliced

zest from one lemon and 1 tablespoon lemon juice

pinch of red chili flakes

* Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.  In a large bowl toss the cauliflower florets with 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt and fresh ground pepper.  Pour out the cauliflower onto the baking sheet and arrange in a single layer.  Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. You can use the bowl for the next step.  Add the dill to the bowl with the green onions, almonds, garbanzo beans, preserved lemon and red chili flakes.  When the cauliflower is cooked add it to the bowl and toss together.  Taste and season, if necessary, with a little lemon juice, salt, pepper or olive oil.

Metaphors of Soil and Soul…

Shoulder Season

by Cindi J Martin

Your normally heavy purple produce bag was somewhat lighter the last weeks. We had entered a shoulder season, the winter to spring transition time in March and April. Variable weather means we may not be comfortable without “something on our shoulders.” For cold loving plants, seasonal changes in temperature and sunlight may cause discomfort or even distress.  Feeling threatened, they redirect their energies from developing fruit to forming flowers and seeds that ensure their survival and secure their future. Simply said, they bolt, which is a plant’s way of running for its life. Bolting plants signal farmers to prepare for a new growing season. We are busy digging out spent vegetation, shaping beds and rows, sowing seeds, and moving seedlings from the greenhouse to prepared fields. Year-round gardening requires a balance between forward and backward thinking grounded in the present reality. A good harvest hangs in the balance, suspended between the past and the future; a good yield requires timely sowing and reaping, timely shaping and tilling.

Farming through changing seasons reminds us of how important it is to recognize how our past has shaped us, influences our current situation, impacts our future thinking, and enables us to live and fully thrive in the present. That’s a daunting task – to keep the past, present, and future in focus! Some prefer to ignore or forget the past, hoping to escape its pain or influence. Others expend so much energy preparing for a comfortable future that they lose sight of the present.

When we become familiar with the rhythms of life and nature recorded in the Old and New Testaments, we see God’s transcendent “past, present, future” perspective revealed in His Nature and His creation. In Revelation we read, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Created in God’s image, we should cultivate a three-dimensional perspective on life, a perspective that maintains a healthy balance between “past, present, and future” thinking. A balanced head on our shoulders prepares us for the uncomfortable seasonal changes that all life must endure. Body, mind, and spirit will flourish, and we won’t “bolt” when inevitable heat, stress, variability, and uncertainty come our way.

Bolting Lettuce