from Wellspring Charitable Gardens this Week - September 15, 2022

From the Garden this Week… Spaghetti Squash, Carrots, Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, Lettuce, Radishes, Beets, Lemon Grass, Oregano, Basil, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme, & Orange Fleshed Honey Dew Melon

Coming Soon… Pumpkins and more Butternut Squash

Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno

This week’s spaghetti squash has become famous as an alternative to spaghetti pasta. This is not my favorite way to serve it. I like to enjoy it on its own. Today’s recipe just seasons the squash with a few ingredients so you can taste it. The strings in the squash grow, like a spool of thread. Imagine the stem is the top of the spool and the blossom end is the bottom, the squash stings are making circles around this center line. To obtain the longest strings in the squash, cut the squash in the middle separating the stem end from the blossom end. If you cut it through the stem and the blossom, it will still cook the same, but you are cutting the strings in half, so they will be shorter. We have a lot of herbs this week, so if you want to store them, the parsley, basil, sage, and thyme can be dried in your kitchen. Unwrap them and leave them on a dry towel or hang upside down if you have room. When dry, store in sealed containers.

Spaghetti Squash with Brown Butter,

Sage, and Walnuts

1 spaghetti squash

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

7-8 sage leaves, coarsely

chopped

¼ cup walnuts, roughly chopped

½ teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan

cheese, optional for garnish

* Preheat the oven to 400 °F. Cut the squash in half, and scoop out the seeds. Transfer the squash to a parchment lined baking sheet, cut-sides down. Bake the squash until the flesh is tender, 45-60 minutes. Let the squash cool until you can handle it. Using a fork, scrape the flesh out of the squash and reserve in a separate bowl. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, add the butter, walnuts and sage leaves, cook gently until butter has browned slightly about 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat, combine with the spaghetti squash and salt toss together. Garnish with fresh ground black pepper and Parmesan. Serve right away.

Return! Return! Return!

Wellspring has reached out to David Crosby of the folk-rock band The Byrds to help us recover those missing garden bags. Crosby hurriedly revised their classic 60s anthem Turn! Turn! Turn! to help us remind our WCG members to return those purple produce bags.

Your Garden Bag return, return, return! There is a reason. Return, return, return! It’s a place for every veggie from the garden.

A place for your corn, a place for your kale

A place for your leeks, a place for your dill

A place for your beets, a place for your beans A place for your thyme, tomatoes, and greens

Your Garden Bag return, return, return! There is a reason. Return, return, return! It’s a place for every veggie from the garden.

Lemon Grass

This herb provides a lemony flavor without the acidity of a lemon. I like both to make tea, steeping the herbs in boiling water for 5-10 minutes. In the summer, let this cool and then enjoy over ice. For a savory recipe with lemon grass, try this simple Thai style soup.

Thai Style Soup

1 quart chicken or vegetable stock

1 small stalk lemongrass, cut into

1-inch lengths

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1-inch fresh ginger root, grated

1-2 Thai peppers, seeded and

chopped (optional)

3 green onions, sliced, white and green

pieces separated

1 cup diced cooked chicken or shrimp

2 small carrots, shredded, about ½ cup

2-3 radishes, sliced

2 teaspoons fish sauce or soy sauce

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon chopped basil

1 lime or lemon, cut into wedges

* Bring the chicken stock to a boil with the lemon grass, garlic, ginger, peppers and white parts of the green onions. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the chicken or shrimp, carrots and greens, fish or soy sauce. Return to a boil, then remove from the heat and serve right away with the green parts of the green onions, basil, cilantro and lime wedges. (Don’t eat the lemongrass, it just flavors the soup.)

Metaphors of Soil and Soul…

No-Till

by Ronda May Melendez

Julie Moreno, our Garden Coordinator, inspired me to write about No-Till Gardening. The main points that I gleaned from her instruction were these: No-Till Gardening contributes to weed management and sustains soil health. She explained that soil contains billions of weed seeds. When we till (disc) soil, we disturb the soil and bring buried weed seeds to the surface, where fertile soil empowers them to germinate and spread. They then compete with desired plants for vital resources - sun, space, nutrients, water.

My next question may seem banal, however, it brought forth some interesting answers! “What are considered weeds?” A weed is “a plant out of place and not intentionally sown; a plant growing where it is not wanted; a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered; plants that are competitive, pernicious, and interfere negatively with human activity.” (12.09.09, extension.psu.edu). No-Till Gardening is a strategy for weed control. It is hard work. It requires strength and endurance to loosen, but not overturn, compacted soil so that water, nutrients, and roots deep. No-Till is messy. Fields might seem worse the first year, especially before desired plants have supplanted the weeds, settled their roots firmly, and established themselves in their “new” soil.

What can we learn from No-Till Gardening? First, weeds (envy, jealousy, selfishness, desires…) are ever-present, as are crises, stresses, frustrations, and demands which till deeply through the soil of heart, mind, and spirit. Once surfaced, weeds vie for vital resources and strangle desired growth (love, joy, peace, patience…)? What can we do to manage “weeds”? First, we need to know our weeds. Some weeds, once removed, are best mulched and returned to the same soil to fertilize and feed it. Deconstructed and understood, they serve as a nutritional object lesson for the growth of desired fruitful plants. Other weeds, though, are best burned or consigned to a landfill. They are pernicious and have no redeeming value, like goat’s head and bindweed in the garden. Are we willing to eradicate malevolent ideologies, paradigms, mindsets, biases, and prejudices that have taken root and have firm hold in the heart? Second, are we willing to stop unnecessary tilling – tilling within our control that disturbs the soil structure - and start targeting precious energies toward more productive tasks and growth? Resentments, bitterness, obsessions needlessly till the soil of heart and mind and give weeds opportunity, fodder, and space to grow.

Weeds are inherent to our fallen nature, and given opportunity, they surface, take control of valuable space, and choke out productive growth. Learning to manage them is critical. Perhaps it is time to practice - on the matters within our control - “No-Till Living” and say, “No, not on this plot of land. No more…” I have chosen a better way.

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” James 4:1-3