Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - November 21, 2024
Fresh Today… Butternut Squash, Green Tomatoes, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots, Bell Pepper, Salad Turnips, Romaine Lettuce, Beets, Turnips, Parsley, Chives, & Pomegranates
Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno
Thanksgiving is a perfect time to highlight our seasonal vegetables on your holiday table. This week you could add some turnips and carrots to your mashed potatoes for a root vegetable mash. Another idea is a green salad with walnuts, cheese, apples, and pomegranate arils. Prepare all the ingredients the day ahead and then just toss the salad together right before serving. This week I included a favorite recipe for our butternut squash. If you had one of our pie pumpkins from the previous weeks, you could use that instead of or in addition to the butternut.
Roasted Butternut Squash with Walnuts and Goat Cheese
4-6 cups cubed butternut squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup walnuts
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
¼ cup crumbled goat cheese
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
* Preheat your oven to 425 °F. Toss the butternut squash cubes with the oil and ½ teaspoon salt. Spread out on a parchment-lined baking sheet and cook in the oven for about 25 minutes, until tender. In the same oven, while cooking the squash, toast the walnuts until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Let the nuts cool and chop coarsely. Remove the squash from the oven and place on a serving platter. Top with the crumbled goat cheese, toasted walnuts and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
Grateful and Giving Thanks
We are grateful and give thanks for ALL - all volunteers, subscribers, partner schools, and friends of Wellspring Charitable Gardens, a community supported agriculture project. Your concern for your community and especially your neighbors who reach out in need is shown by your work, your words of encouragement, and your faithful support of WCG and Wellspring Counseling Ministries. We thank you ALL!
Thursday, November 28, is Thanksgiving Day – a holy-day to gather with family and friends to give Thanks to God for His goodness, His grace, and His love. So that we may celebrate and give thanks as well, we will not be harvesting or delivering produce on Thanksgiving Day.
Your purple WCG produce bags will return filled with fresh vegetables, fruit, and herbs on December 5! Happy Thanksgiving!
Green Tomatoes…
At the end of the summer vegetable season, the fruit on the tomato plants won’t ripen in the cooler weather. Cooking the green tomatoes is a tasty way to take advantage of the remaining tomatoes. Try them in this classic fried tomato recipe.
Fried Green Tomatoes
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup all-purpose flour, divided
½ cup cornmeal
½ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
3 medium-size green tomatoes,
cut into 1/3-inch slices
Vegetable oil & Salt to taste
* Combine egg and buttermilk; set aside. Combine ¼ cup all-purpose flour, cornmeal, salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl or pan, set aside. Dredge tomato slices in remaining ¼ cup flour; dip in egg mixture, and dredge in cornmeal mixture, then set on a rack while preparing the pan. Pour oil to a depth of ¼ to ½ inch in a large cast-iron skillet; heat to 375°. Drop tomatoes, in batches, into hot oil, and cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden. Drain on paper towels or a rack. Sprinkle hot tomatoes with salt and start the movie.
Metaphors of Soil and Soul…
Pondering Thanksgiving and Practicing Gratitude
by Cindi J Martin
Since reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, the word thanksgiving has become richer and more meaningful to me. Voskamp tells us the Greek word eucharisteo means to give thanks. In Luke’s gospel we read that Jesus “…when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, ‘Take this and share it among yourselves...’ And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body, which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ This momentous Passover meal has become known as The Last Supper, a name taken from Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting Last Supper.
Jesus’ Last Supper is the First Communion, a practice Christians called Eucharist, the Latin translation of the Greek word Jesus used when he gave thanks to God. The root of eucharisteo is charis, the Greek for grace, and charis is derived from the Greek word for joy, chara. Wrapped into one word, eucharisteo, we have a union of elements - thanks, grace, and joy. Giving Thanks opens the floodgates of God’s grace so that His joy fills our hearts. Today, social scientists acknowledge what Christians and Jews have known for millennia: Gratitude profoundly influences a person’s well-being. Therapists now encourage clients to write in a gratitude journal three times a week to increase happiness.
Knowing that Jesus eagerly desired to give thanks to God and break bread with His disciples at Passover - despite the betrayal and horror that awaited Him - gives me courage to endure hardship. He did not give thanks for the imminent suffering, though, but prayed that it be removed. He utterly despised the pain and the shame, but gave thanks to God for what He would do through them – pass over in peace with mercy.
These insights shed light on the essential elements of Eucharist and changed how I partake in communion. Now, rather than focusing solely on the bread as the LORD’s broken body and the wine as His shed blood, I also remember that Jesus GAVE THANKS to God for what He would fulfill through His death on the cross, despite horrific shame and excruciating suffering, and what He would provide through the victory of His resurrection. This Thanksgiving, remember to thank God for His amazing grace that declares peace and delivers everlasting joy…
“And let us run with endurance the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2
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