From Wellspring Charitable Gardens - March 13, 2025

Fresh Today… Swiss Chard, Beets, Broccoli, Carrots, Lettuce, Baby Arugula, Spinach, Turnips, Red Radishes, Parsley, Dill, Cilantro, Lemons, Grapefruit, Blood & Navel Oranges

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

Swiss chard is coming in this week’s purple produce bag. This leafy green with colorful stems is in the same family as beets and spinach. It has a flavor similar to spinach with a sweet earthy flavor. When cooking the chard, you’ll want to separate the stems from the leaves and cook the stems first for a few minutes to soften them before adding the leaves that only need a few minutes to wilt.

Swiss Chard and Pasta

½ pound linguini or spaghetti pasta

2 tablespoons butter

½ onion, thinly sliced

1 bunch Swiss chard leaves and

stems, cut into thin strips

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons white wine or water

¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese

Fresh ground pepper

* In a large pot, bring about 8 cups water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon salt to the boiling water and then add the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, in a large sauté pan, heat the butter, onion and Swiss chard stem slices. Cook the for about 2-3 minutes and add the Swiss chard and ½ teaspoon salt. Toss chard and onion together and add 2 tablespoons of white wine or water. Place a lid on the pan and steam the chard for 1-2 more minutes. Remove the lid and turn off the heat. When the pasta is done, drain the water and add the pasta to the chard. Toss together with half of the parmesan cheese, then portion out into serving bowls, topping with the remaining cheese and fresh ground pepper.

Dear WCG Family,

coming grim and grey weather does not bode well for the young veggies, and the forecast for the next days has made them quite anxious. Really, it’s not the weather that concerns them most. Last Thursday’s unsettled weather at harvest stirred the pot and complicated matters. Gusty winds blew a WCG newsletter from the packing station into B-Field and a literate broccoli sprout read the update on their slow growth and spread word to the other sprouts in the garden. They were incensed and started to stew over the Salton Sea, Joshua Tree, Mohave, Death Valley bus tour proposal. The carrots overheard and became especially raucous as the news spread through their rows. Tempers grew hot when Master Gardener Anna went to cool them but became victim of her unfortunate choice of words. “Simmer down!” she urged. That roiled them into a slow boil. Now we have a problem. How do we pack parboiled baby carrots and broccoli sprouts for delivery?

“May we suggest a staycation, instead?”

Homemade Dressing…

Our seasonal vegetables will always taste better with a homemade dressing. You can keep it as simple as oil and vinegar in a mason jar then add a clove of garlic, salt and pepper. This creamy dill dressing uses sour cream instead of oil and lemon juice for the acid. Try this with dill or switch it up with cilantro or parsley.

Green Salad with Creamy Dill Dressing

1 green onion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons chopped dill

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup sour cream or plain yogurt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 head lettuce, chopped and washed

¼ cup parsley leaves

2-3 radishes, thinly sliced

2 carrots, shredded

* Combine the green onions, dill, garlic, sour cream, pepper, salt and lemon juice in a mixing bowl and stir well. In a large bowl add lettuce, radishes, carrots, and the dressing. Toss to coat and serve right away.

Metaphors of Soul and Soil…

Waiting is Like a Rose Bud Unfolding

Cindi J Martin

After many grey and wintry days, I was anxious to see color in the garden again. Walking toward the arbor to look closely at the rose buds now formed, I felt compelled to pull one open to see its beauty, yet I knew I would ruin the emerging bloom if I forced the petals apart. I restrained myself from even touching the bud, knowing my impatience would interfere with its growth and damage the beautiful blossom.

Later, I considered my initial impulse. I thought of times when I had forced things to happen and the damage I had done to others and myself. God’s gentle ways are not mine. His patient process of slow unfolding excels anything I can do by force or by “trying harder.” Sometimes “trying softer” is required. This means waiting expectantly for God to do gently what my restive strength cannot do.

Such truth creates in me a restful confidence to do my part, to let others do theirs, and then to wait expectantly for God to do His work in His time and in His way. I am humbled by how God faithfully demonstrates blessings from waiting on Him to unfold His Life and work in mine, which is like a rose bud unfolding. Nine years ago, Wellspring Charitable Gardens grew out of a terribly tense waiting period imposed by physical limitations and health challenges my husband and I were enduring. We could no longer manage our three-acre ranch and were tempted to sell and move on. Then the idea for creating a Community Supported Agriculture Project (CSA) unfolded in my mind. We could repurpose the pastures used for equine assisted psychotherapy into fields used for growing vegetables and fruit to sell. We would donate the proceeds to continue the work of the Wellspring counseling programs.

Sustainability meant recruiting volunteers to help manage costs and to share and shoulder the physical work we could not do alone. Visionary subscribers were needed to invest in the start-up and support the work’s ongoing operation. Now, nine years later, we stand in awe of the terrific team of volunteers, subscribers, and donors whom God has raised to support this garden work in soil and soul. Every day we see marvelous growth in buds, blossoms, and human beings who are blessed by God’s faithful unfolding of beauty in our work and in our lives.