From Wellspring Charitable Gardens this Week - December 1, 2022

From the Garden this Week… Cauliflower or Cabbage, Romaine Lettuce, Carrots, Fennel, Salad Turnips, Purple Top Turnips, Watermelon Radish, Red Radish, Green Onions, Arugula, Lemon Grass, Rosemary, Meyer Lemons, & Persimmons

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

We have lots of root vegetables right now, so these recipes are meant to help you eat them up. The different varieties of radishes and turnips are similar, so they can be cooked and eaten together. Feel free to mix them as you like. The red radishes have a little more water and the salad turnips are little less spicy. Even though they can all be eaten raw, I like to cook them. This roasted vegetable recipe includes gremolata. Gremolata is an Italian condiment that combines lemon zest, garlic, and parsley. This combination brightens up winter vegetables and is a good compliment to the spicy radishes.

Roasted Radishes, Turnips, and Rosemary with Gremolata

1-pound radishes and turnips, cut so

they are about equal size

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 small clove garlic, finely grated

* Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place radishes and turnips in a large bowl and drizzle with oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary; toss thoroughly. Pour the seasoned vegetables out onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes. While cooking, mix the lemon zest, garlic, and parsley in a small bowl to make the gremolata. When the turnips are tender, remove from oven, sprinkle with the gremolata, and serve.

Giving Thanks!

Wellspring Charitable Gardens has been awarded a CDFA Farm to School Producer Grant to expand our produce production and processing capacities so that we may provide fresh, locally grown vegetables, fruit, and herbs to schools in Riverbank, Oakdale, Modesto, and beyond. More important, we will be offering school children mental health care lessons rooted in our gardening reflections called Metaphors of Soil and Soul. From the beginning our Charitable Garden has been dedicated to cultivating and nourishing physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health in our community. Now, our Counseling, Education and Garden Professionals will bring healing relationships – and garden gleaned insights – into our local schools. With Thanksgiving to all, we are grateful for your support of Wellspring Counseling Ministries: Bringing Healing Relationships to Those Who Hurt.

Pickled Vegetables…

Pickling these root vegetables in a vinegar brine allows you to prepare them ahead and add them to salads, soups, or rice bowls. They perk up any dish as a simple condiment or can be enjoyed as a snack. I shredded them here, but you could also slice them thinly on a mandolin or use a spiralizer to make thin strips. The thinner and smaller they are cut, the faster they will cook in the vinegar solution.

Quick Pickled Radishes and Carrots

¾ cup water

½ cup white distilled vinegar

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

⅛ teaspoon peppercorns

1 cup mixture shredded carrots and radishes

Combine the water, vinegar, sugar, salt, and peppercorns together, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Mix the vinegar solution with the carrots and radishes. Let sit for at least 30 minutes. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

Metaphors of Soil and Soul…

One Pumpkin’s Super Power

by Cindi J Martin

This pumpkin was a volunteer and planted itself next to our cucumber trellis. It has thrived since it began growing a few months ago. At over 30 lbs., it amazes us how it managed all this time to stay fixed on a rather fragile stem to its vine, despite being weakened by the recent freezes. While we stood in awe at its suspension, Heidi Aufdermaur, our Master Gardener, pointed out something that the foliage had cunningly concealed! The pumpkin’s secret to longevity has not been its stem or supportive trellis system, but its ability to physically grow into and wrap itself around one of the strong wires from the hog panel we used as a trellis.

As you can see from the picture, one quarter of the pumpkin has grown a few inches through the hog panel and has incorporated the wires into its very pumpkin being. I could go several directions with this metaphor, but what comes most strongly to mind is the reminder that when we stay close to the Lord by reading His Word, spending time with other believers, and loving all people (even our enemies), we eventually begin to incorporate the character and way of Christ into our very being. This is not something we can do alone on the stem of our own strength or any other human support system. We must cling to Christ and grow securely into the very Trellis of His Being, allowing Him to become a part of our whole being.