Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - December 19, 2024

Fresh Today… Cabbage, Kale, Broccoli, Lettuce, Spinach, Turnips, Radishes, Carrots, Peas, Celery, Sweet Potatoes, Parsley, Cilantro, Pomegranates & a Loofah

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

It’s soup season, so this week I have two contrasting recipes to use in between your holiday gatherings and to have ready for a quick meal when you come home from shopping. The first is for Cream of Broccoli. This comes together quickly and blends up easily with an immersion blender. Because we are blending it, you don’t have to worry about how you cut the vegetables. I like to use as little liquid as possible when cooking the vegetables, just barely covering them. Then you can add more liquid at the end if needed, to reach the consistency that you prefer.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

1 medium onion, washed

    and chopped

2 stalks of celery, finely diced

4 cups of broccoli, including stocks

    and leaves, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons butter

½ teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons flour

2.5-3 cups water

½ cup half and half

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

* In a large saucepan cook the onion, celery, broccoli, butter, thyme and salt over medium heat For 2-3 minutes. Lower the heat to low and add the flour and stir until for 20-30 seconds.  Add water, to just barely cover the vegetables, about 2 cups, increase heat to high, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium low, let simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the broccoli is soft. Remove from the heat and blend with an immersion blender. Stir in the half and half and adjust the consistency if desired by adding a little water. Taste for salt and pepper, add if needed.  Ladle into serving bowls, top with the Parmesan cheese and serve. This is great reheated the next day.

O Come, Emmanuel!

O Come, Emmanuel is among the most plaintiff and poignant of Christmas carols, but it’s far more than a carol. It is Israel’s plea to God for deliverance from the despair that is their bondage to darkness, sin, and death. Like Israel, we all are captive, lonely, mournful exiles who wrestle with God, which is what the name Israel means.

Returning home after 20 years, Jacob, whose name means deceiver, must face his twin brother Esau, whom he cheated out of his paternal blessing 20 years earlier.  Fearful and ambivalent about returning, Jacob sends his wives and children ahead but remains behind and considers fleeing to preserve his life. A man then appears and confronts him. They wrestle through the night until daybreak, Jacob refusing to release the man until he receives a blessing: “Then the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome’… Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.’” Peniel means Face of God.

Like Jacob, may we wrestle with God until He blesses us. May we struggle through our darkness until the day dawns and the bright Morning Star arises in our hearts, and we are blessed and called Overcomer! Merry Christmas!

O Come, Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here,

Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Savory Sweet Potatoes…

There is so much more to sweet potatoes than Thanksgiving. My favorite combination is to add in a little heat. This vegetarian chili recipe highlights all of the rich flavors from our sweet potatoes.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili

1 tbsp olive oil                        3 cups sweet potatoes, cubed

1 large onion, chopped         2 cans (15 ounces each) black

1-2 sweet peppers, diced          beans, rinsed and drained

1-2 hot peppers, minced       1 can (15 ounces) diced

1 tbsp chili powder                    tomatoes, undrained 

3 garlic cloves, minced          1 teaspoon salt

1 tsp ground cumin                1 cup water

1 tsp dried or fresh oregano

* In a large saucepan or Dutch oven heat the oil, add the onion and peppers. Cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.  Add the chili powder, garlic, cumin and oregano.   Cook and stir for 1-2 minutes.  Add the diced sweet potatoes, black beans, tomatoes, salt and water.  Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes until the sweet potatoes are tender.  Adjust seasoning with additional salt if needed and serve with grated cheese if desired.

Metaphors of Soil and Soul… 

The Beauty of Desolation

by Ronda May Melendez & Keith F Martin

Christmas is the season for giving and receiving and a time for reflecting and rejoicing.  I rejoice in seed and soil, rain and sun, life and growth. I am also grateful for Light in the darkness.

On Sunday, a dear friend taught me an ancient spiritual practice - reflecting upon the day’s consolations and desolations. We make time to review and consider the day’s best and worst. After a few days of practice, I marvel at the profound utility of this simple practice. While reflecting on the joy in celebrating the birth of Christ, I considered how the consolation of Christ’s birth into this darkened world required His own momentary desolation.

Jesus’ initial presence in this world began as a seed housed in the darkness of his mother’s womb.  Unseen in that darkness came the miracle of the joining, the forming, and the knitting together of Life from above with life from below - Divine with human, Eternal with mortal, Whole with broken - into One.  It was not just humanity, as at creation, receiving life through the breath of the Spirit of God but Eternal Spirit assuming mortal flesh to dwell among humans and be known to us, and then by us to be denied, rejected, and laid waste on a cross for sins that were ours not His. He came to be forsaken for our sake. The LORD’s desolation, though, is our consolation.

Was His incarnation the end? Yes, and most certainly not! It was the end of our desolation - bondage to sin and death - and the beautiful beginning of our freedom and abundant life. If you feel desolate this holiday, rest assured you are not alone, and you are certainly not hopeless. The birth of Christ means there is both end and beginning for you. It can be the end to your darkness and bondage, which will feel strange or even frightening, but it is not the end of you. The Child formed in the darkness of Mary’s womb overcame human darkness so that you might share His Light and Life eternal. Our desolation ends with Jesus’ consolation – He is Immanuel, God with Us. For Him I am grateful and rejoice. Have a merry, grateful Christmas! 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (overcome) it….

… And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-5, 14