Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens Today - June 13, 2024
From the Garden Today… Cucumbers, Spinach, Fennel, Green Onions, Red & Yellow Onions, Summer Squash, Carrots, Potatoes, Parsley, Cilantro, Chamomile, Cherries & Apricots
Using Your Produce… by Julie Moreno
This time of year, we have chamomile ready to harvest. This perennial flower is used to make the popular tea. I will cut the blossom off of each stem and let them dry for a week or so. The yellow center will fall apart when dry. Then store the dried tea in a glass jar until ready to use. I use a filter for loose leaf tea and steep for a few minutes before enjoying. With our plentiful squash, I have a recipe for fritters. Make sure to grate the squash about 30 minutes ahead and let the water in the plant drain away. These fritters are great served the next day.
Squash Fritters
2-3 pieces summer squash
grated, about 1 lb. or 3 cups
¾ teaspoon salt
1 egg
¼ cup flour (a gluten free flour
substitute will work here)
2 Tablespoons shredded cheese
1 Tablespoon of oil
* Combine the grated squash and salt and leave it in a colander for 20-30 minutes, to allow some of the water to drain. Squeeze the squash to remove any excess water. Place the drained squash in a mixing bowl and combine well with the egg, flour and cheese. Heat a nonstick pan, over medium heat, add the oil and drop 1/4 cup portions of the squash mixture into the pan. Help it to spread out a little then repeat 2-3 more times, so you have 3-4 small pancakes. Allow them to cook for 4 minutes then turn the fritters over and cook for another 4 minutes. Remove them and cook another batch to use the remaining batter. Enjoy hot, but they are also great the next day.
Roasted Fennel & Carrots
Fennel and carrots are roasted in the oven, highlighting their natural flavor and sweetness.
Ingredients:
2 large fennel bulbs
14 ounces multi-colored carrots
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Sriracha salt
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil. Remove the outer layers of the fennel but leave the fronds. Wash with water. Cut into eighths. Scrub carrots under running water, leaving about 4 inches of the green tops. If your carrots are larger than 3/4-inch in diameter, cut them in half. Arrange the vegetables on the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle Sriracha salt evenly over the vegetables. Bake in the preheated oven until the vegetables are tender but not too soft, 20 to 25 minutes. Turn on the broiler and brown the vegetables for about 2 minutes. Serve warm.
Salads Without Lettuce…
The heat and our lettuce don’t get along, so it’s time to make lettuce-less salads. I love this simple cucumber salad with red onion and a touch of vinegar and sugar. It’s cool, refreshing, and easy to make.
Cucumber Salad
1-2 cucumbers, peeled and seeds removed if desired
¼ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon sugar
½ cup sliced red onion
¼ teaspoon red chili flakes
2 teaspoons rice vinegar or white wine or red wine vinegar
* Cut the cucumber in half from top to bottom and slice each piece, with the flat side down on your cutting board, into thin half-moons. In a large bowl, combine the cucumber, salt, sugar, red onion, red chili flakes and vinegar. Let stand for 10 minutes and then enjoy.
Metaphors of Soil and Soul…
A Pain in the Thin
by Cindi J Martin
We have planted more fruit trees – apricot, cherry, peach, plum - to diversify the harvest for our Wellspring Charitable Gardens subscribers. Every year at this time, tree limbs bow down with dense clusters of green, hard stone fruit that must be thinned, or “cleaned” as the Gospel of John calls the practice, if we are to have a good harvest.
When I began our gardening venture, I invited my trusted friend John to the ranch to relieve my anxiety about knocking down so much promising fruit. It seemed a waste, until he explained the risks of not thinning – broken limbs and damaged trees; diseased, mildewed, and undersized fruit. Intellectually I understood, but a familiar pain unsettled my heart when he said to discard enough fruit so those remaining were a fist apart. “That much!” I winced in disbelief. Uncertain and wavering, I needed his encouragement to release my hold – my control - and his reassurance that the practice would, in time, bear fruit. Fear and doubt lingered, but as directed, I clenched my fist and thinned. A few years of training with Farmer John grew my confidence in the practice of thinning.
Faith in God and His Word grows in a comparable way – by trust and practice. People of great faith often speak of fear and doubt coexisting with faith. They built confidence in God by enduring the tension between belief and unbelief one experience at a time. Emily Dickenson wrote, “We both believe, and disbelieve a hundred times an hour, which keeps Believing nimble.” She uses the present participle form of the verb to believe - “Believing” - to indicate faith is active and present even when fear or doubt are felt. The desperate father who reached out to Jesus for the healing of his demon possessed son pleaded, “I do believe, help my unbelief.” The LORD works through this vital tension.
Thinning makes room for fruit to grow to maturity. When the fruit of our effort is small, diseased, or spoiled, perhaps we are not thinning the excess fruit we have crowded onto our limbs. Trying to bear too much fruit can break limbs, hinder growth, and diminish yields. Letting some promising fruit drop to the ground, painful as that is, so that the remaining fruit can mature fully and ripen requires an enormous, yet nimble, step of faith out onto a limb to reach the fruit.
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