From the Garden this Week, April 1, 2021...

From the Garden this Week…

Spinach, Frisée, Mixed Salad Greens, Radishes, Carrots, Green Lettuce Heads, Broccoli, Turnips, Peas, Parsnips, Cilantro, Oranges and Lemons

Coming Soon… Red Beets and Fennel

Using your produce…By Julie Moreno

Even though the weather is warming we are still two or more months away from summer produce. To use our seasonal vegetables in a new way, the first recipe I have is a vegetarian Thai curry. I used the seasonal root vegetables, parsnips, turnips and carrots, and add spinach and cilantro at the end for a fresh boost of flavor. You can use premade Thai curry for this dish. In the Asian foods section of most grocery stores they sell a good product. If you purchase this from an Asian grocery, beware that the curry paste can be very spicy. Taste first and add more afterwards. If you don’t have curry paste and don’t want to purchase a jar, I recommend using a spicy pepper, like a jalapeno, or you could even get away with a tablespoon or two of Siracha sauce, or red pepper flakes. The blend of coconut milk, spice and cilantro come together to create the flavor of Thailand.

Thai Vegetable Curry

1 tablespoon oil

1 small white onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger

2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

1 parsnip, peeled and sliced into 1-inch pieces

1 turnip, diced, peeled if desired

1-2 carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal into ¼-inch thick rounds (about 1 cup)

1-2 tablespoons Thai curry paste or 1 jalapeno minced

1 can (14 ounces) regular coconut milk

½ cup water

3-4 cups spinach, chopped

1 ½ teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce

2 teaspoons rice vinegar or fresh lime or lemon juice

½ cup chopped cilantro

Salt and Siracha, if needed

In a large Dutch oven or soup pot, add the oil, onion and salt. Cook over medium heat until the onion is translucent. Add the ginger, garlic, parsnip, turnip, carrots, curry paste or jalapeno to the pot. Cook for 2-3 minutes until fragrant, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the coconut milk and water, stir and cook at a strong simmer for 7-10 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Stir in the spinach, sugar, soy sauce, lime juice and cilantro. Taste and add salt and siracha hot sauce if desired. Serve over steamed rice.

Did you know that your veggies grow

where horses once trotted around?

Before we became a CSA, Wellspring Charitable Gardens was once home to three horses used to assist children and adults recovering from traumatic experiences. Unexpectedly, Cindi was diagnosed with a bone disease that prohibited equine-related activities. So, she and her husband shifted perspective and began the transformation of turning WCG into a different kind of healing place for “heart health”!

Help us win a $5,000 grant! Go to Nature’s Path “Gardens for Good” and search for Wellspring to VOTE!

OR - here’s an easy link to find our entry: https://tinyurl.com/xs6kvjby

Recipe Variations…

I’ve talked many times about using the vegetables that you have when they are available and this week my recipe variation includes using cilantro instead of parsley in a tabbouleh salad. I also added the spring vegetables of baby lettuce, carrots and peas.

Cilantro Tabbouleh Salad

1 cup fine bulgur wheat

1 cup water

½ teaspoon salt

1 carrot, finely diced

1 cup snap peas, ends removed and cut into ½ inch pieces

1 small garlic clove, minced

1 green onion, white and green parts sliced

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups baby lettuce leaves, coarsely chopped

1 cup chopped cilantro

1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt, to taste

Place the bulgur, water and ½ teaspoon salt in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Let the bulgur sit for 20-30 minutes while preparing the vegetables. When the bulgur is finished, fluff with a fork. Transfer the bulgur to a large mixing bowl, and toss with the carrot, peas, garlic, green onion, lemon juice, baby lettuce, cilantro, and olive oil. Taste for salt and pepper and add more if desired. Eat right away.

Metaphors of Soil and Soul…By Ronda May Melendez

A friend recently made an important differentiation that helped me look at gardening a wee bit differently. A slight shift in perspective, but an absolutely imperative shift. A shift that is pregnant with meaning and life.

The differentiation was this: there is a difference between dirt and soil. Dirt lacks anything that is life-giving, while soil is full to the brim with life-giving nutrients, minerals and microbes, as well as, worms , etc. What a beautiful difference! Soil is black, rich and full, teeming with life. Dirt is simply dirt… compacted, hard and lifeless. Soil is so much easier to work than dirt. The more lifeless the plot of land, the harder it is to work!!

This brought to mind Genesis 3:23, “Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.”

God sent Adam back out to till the ground from which he was taken…perfect soil. On the front side, what difficulty and humility it required to go back out and till (labor, work) that which he was taken from. It had been perfect and required no labor before. Before sin, Adam hung out with the Lord and chilled, so to speak. That ceased. Now, the soil was cursed. If it was not worked, tilled and amended it would become dirt. Work was now required.

I wonder at the grace of God to us, in sending us to work the soil of our lives. In Him the ground can be restored to soil, even from the hardest of compact dirt plots. But we must decide whether we will work in the guidance of the Lord to accomplish it: amending and removing things where needed. God did not leave Adam alone to fend for himself in it all, rather He made Himself available. Will we accept His invitation to work together with a heart that is for developing rich loamy soil?

“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

∎ From the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:23