Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - November 7, 2024
Fresh Today… Sweet Potatoes, Eggplant, Carrots, Sweet Peppers, Delicata Squash, Sweet White Table Turnips with Greens, Rutabagas with Greens for Braising, Watermelon Radishes, Head Lettuce, Celery, Parsley, Basil, Edible Miniature Marigolds, Decorative Corn, Fuyu Persimmons & Pomegranates
Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno
The weather has quickly changed to soup season, so I’ll get you started with a vegetable puree style soup. These should be quick, just taking the time for the vegetables to soften, and they take advantage of my favorite kitchen gadget, the immersion blender. An immersion blender will allow you to blend up the vegetable right in the pot and they are much easier to clean that a regular blender. I will also use them to blend smoothies and pesto in a Mason jar. For this soup, I like the earthy combination of our sweet potatoes with the fresh parsley. You can adjust the spices to your liking (or what you have in your cupboard) and if you don’t have coconut milk, regular cream or half and half will also work.
Curried Sweet Potato Soup
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, finely diced
½ cup chopped celery, leaves & stems
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 teaspoon salt
1 large or 2 medium sweet potatoes,
peeled & cut into 1-inch cubes
3 cups water or vegetable stock
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 & ½ teaspoons turmeric
⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground coriander
⅛ teaspoon ground ginger
½ cup coconut milk
juice & zest of a half lemon
2-3 tablespoons finely chopped
Italian parsley leaves
* Add butter, onions, celery, garlic and salt to a thick bottomed pot and heat to medium. Sauté the onions and garlic until fragrant and slightly translucent, about five to six minutes. Add the sweet potatoes and stir to combine. Add the water or broth, crushed red pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, ground coriander, and ground ginger. Bring the soup to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer the soup until the potatoes are soft enough to smash with a spoon, about 20-30 minutes. Once the potatoes are soft, use an immersion blender to blend. Add the coconut milk and stir to combine. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and parsley. Mix well and taste, add additional salt if desired.
Funky Chickens - Fewer Eggs!
Our chickens are in a funk! They have succumbed to PAD - Poultry Affective Disorder - and are not laying down on the job. PAD, like SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), is depression triggered by season changes. Symptoms appear in fall and persist through the colder, darker winter months. The malady saps a layer's strength and makes it moody. Treatment of a PAD stricken chicken may require phototherapy, psychotherapy, and medication.
Medicating The Girls is out of the question (we prefer natural treatment), so we will pursue a regimen of phototherapy and psychotherapy. We have installed lights in the coops and assigned a Wellspring therapist to provide counseling. She has recommended behavioral therapy and modified cognitive therapy (Bird brains, you know). Given the therapist's expertise, we are confident the chickens will recover, but slowly. We will keep you posted on their progress. Should you receive no eggs with your order, please keep calm. We are preparing your refund while the ESH, Emotional Support Human, is at work.
More Roasted Veggies…
Roasted veggies are a reoccurring theme in my kitchen. So much so, that I know to pick up a double pack of parchment paper at Costco every fall; it’s the best value. (Although it even takes me a full year to go through it.) If you don’t have real maple syrup, honey is a better substitute than other pancake syrups.
Maple Mustard Roasted Rutabagas
1-2 rutabagas, peeled, medium dice
1 tablespoon oil
½ teaspoon coarse salt
Fresh ground black pepper
1 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
* Preheat the oven to 425° F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss the rutabagas with the oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 20-30 minutes, tossing once during cooking. In a small bowl, mix the maple syrup, mustard and cider vinegar. Take the sheet pan out of the oven and pour the maple mixture over the vegetables. Stir the vegetables and return to the oven for 1 minute to caramelize. Serve right away.
Metaphors of Soil and Soul…
Pruning
by Cindi J Martin
Today I looked closely at the tangle of bare grape vines growing in the garden. They need pruning. I cringe in sorrow whenever I face this task. How do I muster courage to sever once beautiful branches covered in green leaves shading sweet grapes? The courage comes from experience and faith. Through practice I have learned which branches to remove and which to prune. I have seen the blessing in severe pruning. I know the favorable influence of a prior season’s pruning on the coming season’s producing, so I have mustered the strength to endure a loss that is worth the gain. By faith, I look forward to new growth, though today, life hangs in the balance while branches hang suspended between blades of my pruning shears.
Remaining productive while growing older also demands severe pruning. It’s not merely snipping a twig here or a leaf there – like preparing a floral bouquet for the table, attending a summer evening concert, enjoying a Sunday afternoon picnic; it requires severing entire limbs that once bore fruit. My strength waning, I am forced to forego preparing extravagant daily meals, hosting weekly get-togethers, serving on multiple committees monthly. The fruit of these efforts once brought me joy through purpose, encouraged others, and made my work meaningful. Now looking closely at my own aged and barren branches, I see a tangle of loss and feel sorrow.
Despite my grieving, I have learned to trust the Lord of the Pruning Shear. I know His cuts encourage the growth of good fruit. When the Lord looks closely at our lives, He will, in season, cut back once productive limbs that we would never choose to cut. Pruning ALWAYS hurts, but when I place my limbs into His capable hands, I can be assured He will redirect my strength into the choice branches remaining, so they continue to bear sweet fruit. Are you facing a painful season of pruning? Do you feel your life suspended between the blades of the pruning shears? May your faith in The Ever-Faithful Master of the Vine give you courage to endure the loss and wait confidently for a new season of sweet and satisfying growth.
“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit…. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me.” John 15:2
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