from Wellspring Charitable Gardens This Week - October 13, 2022

From the Garden this Week… Salad Turnips, Spinach, Rutabaga, Cherry Tomatoes, Eggplant, Arugula, Radishes, Endive, Purple “Green” Beans, Basil, Garlic, Thyme, Fuyu Persimmons, & a Pumpkin

Coming Soon… Pomegranates

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

Our fall vegetables are on their way to you this week. We have the first rutabagas, spinach, salad turnips, endive, and persimmons of the season. Rutabagas are a cross between turnips and cabbage. They have a milder flavor than turnips and work as a great substitute for potatoes in any recipes. You can bake them whole and then enjoy with butter, salt, and pepper, or cut them up into chunks or roast. Endive is an alternative green that can be used in salads or in sandwiches just like lettuce. And our salad turnips can be eaten raw, but I like to cook them, this recipe uses both the root and the greens.

Braised Turnips with Their Greens

1 bunch salad turnips with greens

1 tablespoon olive oil

¼ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup vegetable stock or water

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 tablespoon cold butter

2 teaspoons honey

* Separate the turnips and greens, discard any yellowing leaves. Wash the roots and cut into halves or quarters. Chop the greens and stems, rinse away any dirt if needed and set aside. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add turnip roots in a single layer, cook 3-4 minutes, without turning. Add thyme and garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add vegetable stock, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil; cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until turnips are tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Uncover, increase heat to medium-high, and add greens; cook until liquid reduces by three-fourths, about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the butter and honey, stirring until the butter is melted. Serve right away.

Thank You, Garden Friends!

Bag Aid! - our Return Your Purple Produce Bag benefit concert - was a huge success. We are rolling in purple! And we are astounded at how many of you came costumed as purple produce bags! Y’all Rock! Captain Fantastic himself, Elton John, so envied your flamboyant enthusiasm! As thanks, we leave you a last song revision: Thank You for Being a Friend.

Thank you for bringing your bag Traveled to your home and back again Now your bag is here, you're a pal and a garden friend

I’m not ashamed to say I hope it always returns our way

Your bag is here, won't you stand up and take a bow

And if you had a dinner Invited everyone you knew Well, you would see a veggie bag from me And the card attached would say

Thank you for bringing your bag (I wanna thank you!) Thank you for bringing your bag (I wanna thank you!) Thank you for bringing your bag (I wanna thank you!)

Thank you for bringing your bag (I wanna thank you!)

Leafy Greens…

Fall is here and so are the leafy greens like this week’s spinach. To get the longest life in your refrigerator, try to wash and dry the greens before you put them away. You can use our spinach for salad or if you like it cooked, sauté them quickly and then enjoy right away.

Sautéed Spinach

6 cups roughly chopped spinach

1 garlic clove minced

sprinkle of red chili flakes

1 tablespoon butter or olive oil

salt and pepper

lemon juice or balsamic vinegar

Wash the spinach in a bowl of water, let any dirt settle to the bottom and pull the spinach out of the water and let drain, they do not need to be dry. In a large sauté pan with a lid, heat the garlic, chili flakes and butter over medium-high heat, until the garlic becomes fragrant about 1-2 minutes. Add the spinach, salt and pepper. Cover with the lid and cook for about 2 minutes. Remove the lid and stir the spinach, cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Before serving sprinkle with a squeeze of fresh lemon or balsamic vinegar.

Metaphors of Soil and Soul…

Unexpected Strength

by Cindi J Martin

We trellised our cucumbers this year. Their serpentine vines wend through a hog panel secured to steel T-posts driven into firm ground. The leaves are just now turning yellow and brown; soon they will slowly wither and die out. Warm autumn weather has allowed them to continue producing, though, so we have not yet pulled out the vines. Imagine my surprise as I looked for cucumbers and found a HUGE pumpkin (15 lbs.) growing not on the ground but halfway up the trellis.

This pumpkin is one of our heirloom varieties. Dark green, dense, and heavy with bright orange flesh, it is ideal for roasting and pulping. At first glance, I wondered how a pumpkin seed got mixed in with our cucumber seeds, but then I marveled at the strength of this pumpkin’s stem, clinging to slender steel trellis rods holding its already substantial weight and yet still growing bigger and bigger.

Sometimes we humans get planted somewhere that seems quite out of place; we feel like a pumpkin among cucumbers. It seems beyond our strength to even grow, much less flourish, suspended in such unfavorable surroundings. Overwhelmed, we might even be tempted to succumb to hopelessness or bleak resignation. If we have grown up being told we are weak when we ask for help, we may resist reaching out to God or others in difficult times. Yet, if we reach out to God and the people He provides as trellises of support, we may discover that we have unexpected strength to do what we never thought possible – to hold firm and grow. What trellises have you not yet used for support? It takes courage to cling to others and still grow through the adversities of life. Our Creator offers us support, in all circumstances at all times. Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”