From Your Wellspring Charitable Gardens this Week - March 3, 2022

From the Garden this Week… Parsnips, Carrots, Snap Peas, Mixed Greens, Watermelon Radish, Swiss Chard, Red Cabbage, Broccoli, Celery, Parsley, Rosemary, Grapefruit, Lemons, Meyer Lemons, Blood & Navel Oranges

Coming Soon… Butter Lettuce

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

More parsnips and carrots are coming this week. The parsnips are wonderful roasted, which enhances their sweetness and creamy texture. You can add them to my favorite cooked carrot recipe, included below. I’ve been promoting this dish for several years, so you might have seen it before, but this is a testament to how much I like it. Usually, I just end up eating the carrots out of the pan and forgo the salad. I encourage you to make the salad the first time. I have to mention that even though we do not grow avocados, this is their season. They are at their best in the late winter before Easter.

Roasted Carrot Orange Avocado Salad (adapted from April Bloomfield’s recipe)

2 medium garlic cloves, smashed

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground*

1 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted and

ground*

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

6 carrots, sliced in half

1 orange

1 ripe Hass avocados

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons cilantro sprigs

*You can use ½ teaspoon of ground spices, toasting them slightly in a dry pan will bring out the flavor

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Press the garlic and put the paste in a large mixing bowl with salt, cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and stir well, then add the carrots and toss so they’re coated with the oil and spices. Put the carrots in a large shallow casserole dish in one layer. Scrape out the extra garlic, spices, and oil from the bowl and spread on top of the carrots. Pour ¼ cup water into the casserole with the carrots. Cover the dish tightly with foil (or a tight-fitting lid) and put it in the oven. Cook the carrots for 25 minutes. Take off the foil and keep cooking until the carrots are lightly browned and tender, about 25-35 minutes more. While the carrots are roasting, peel the orange and avocado then cut into chunks. When the carrots are done, take the dish out of the oven and let it sit until the carrots have cooled slightly. Put the avocado, oranges, and carrots with their spices from cooking in a large mixing bowl and add the lemon juice and the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Toss gently, taste for salt, and serve topped with the cilantro.

Dear Loyal Wellspring Supporters,

Thank you for contributing to Wellspring Counseling Ministries through your garden purchases these last 5 Years. It’s been our joy to provide you with the finest, freshest, naturally grown produce. Beginning March 1, we are revising the pricing for our fresh vegetables and fruit. The weekly basket will be $40 ($160 for a subscription of 4) and a one-time basket will be $50. Fresh eggs will be $7 per dozen. Thank you for your continued support and concern for those needing counseling care in our community. You have encouraged many. The LORD bless you through your generosity!

Taste of Spring…

Our peas signal to the garden that there is change coming. Planted in the late fall, pea plants start growing quickly and bloom as the days lengthen. They don’t tolerate the heat, so they will be gone soon. Enjoy them while they are here.

Pea and Radish Salad with Hard Cooked Eggs

Juice and zest from one lemon, about 1 tablespoon

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

¼ teaspoon salt

fresh ground pepper

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

4 cups salad greens

1 handful sugar snap peas, washed, stem removed and sliced

1 watermelon radish, thinly sliced

2 eggs, hard cooked, peeled and sliced

In a large mixing bowl whisk the lemon juice, zest, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh herbs. Add the greens, peas, and radishes. Stir gently and turn out onto a serving platter or bowl, add the eggs to the top, and season with salt and fresh ground pepper. Serve immediately.

Metaphors of Soil and Soul… Food for the Soul by Cindi J Martin

C.S. Lewis is known and loved by many people as the author of a beloved fiction series and allegory called, The Chronicles of Narnia. I admit that I prefer his non-fiction and devour many of those books as if they were my favorite foods. My soul just feels nourished after reading even one paragraph. His writing is dense like a good cauliflower “steak" and takes time to chew and digest.

Our souls, like our bodies, need good nutritious food. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life (John 6:35-40).” When the devil tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread to ease the hunger of His physical fasting, Jesus said, “humans don’t live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). Yesterday was Ash Wednesday which in the Christian Tradition signals Lent and fasting for 40 days in memory of the fasting of Christ during His temptation in the desert before beginning his public ministry. Today during Lent, some people fast from food and others fast from social media or anything that tempts them to fill their souls with things that do not nourish and bring life. Lent ends with the celebration of Easter which commemorates the resurrection of Christ after the days of suffering and His death on the cross for the sins of humankind.

Shortly before His death, Christ told His disciples that His new commandment was to love one another as He loved them. Love is the greatest soul food available to humans. We often want love and connection to God and others, and yet, love involves risk and vulnerability. In his book The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis wrote, “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.” If you and I take the risk to love someone, to expose our hearts to pain, we are in good company. Jesus clearly thought that genuine love is worth dying for.