This week we feature a “recipe” for simple container gardening. Planting seeds even on a small scale contributes to a Sustainable Food System. In fact, Seeds of Hope is the theme of this year’s Laudato Si Week (May 19-26)!  We can find hope in a few “seeds” of the wisdom of mystic Hildegard of Bingen.

Pay attention to spring blades of tender green “rising”; signs of resurrection.  My great-grandma picked tender dandelion greens for salad or fried them as her “spring tonic”.  Since childhood in the "old country", she had foraged for seasonal eats.  Spring greens from the wild, your garden, a Farmer’s Market or Co-op will add to this recipe for Spring Layered Salad.  According to Civil Eats, home cooking is a cornerstone of a sustainable food system!

Asparagus is a perennial vegetable that rises from underground in the Upper Midwest from May through June.  Enjoy it in Asparagus and Honey Lemon Chicken.  In this Resurrection season, reflect with me on ways to act and advocate, bringing transformation to our world, including our food system, feeding and healing people, plants, animals and the planet.  
 

During Easter Week or the 50-day Easter season, slow down to let the Holy One feed your deepest hungers. Even make bread with this recipe for Basic Whole Wheat Bread. Consider how you give bread - material and spiritual - to the hungry. Live the Eucharist and pray "Holy God, give bread to the hungry and hunger for You to those who have bread."

Rather than a recipe, this post poses a Food Pantry Challenge! If you needed food assistance, what groceries would you put in your monthly food pantry package? From the list of options provided, tally up how many meals you would eat from those items. Learn more about WAFER Food Pantry in La Crosse and how to address food insecurity where you live.

In her Lenten reflection book, Christine Valters Paintner invites us to fast from “speed and rushing in order to embrace slowness and pausing.”  In our Western culture, our minds and hands seem to move at a fast pace.  One place to slow down is in the kitchen.  A simple recipe for “Slow Cooker Stew” invites us to pause to savor a hearty meal.  Check out the "Slow Food" movement.

Would you buy vegetable stock, stew or tomato sauce made from good farm surplus produce and fresh-cut veggie remnants?  Matriark Foods sells delicious, healthy, low sodium foods to retail stores, schools, hospitals, food banks and food service outlets saving tons of fresh food from the landfill.  Learn more about Matriark and “upcycled” foods that help the environment, support farmers and feed the hungry.  Make Kitchen Scrap Vegetable or Meat Stock to reduce food waste.

Teaser:  

The maple sap has been running very early this year with the record rise in temperatures.  You are invited to St. Joseph Ridge’s FSPA land for the boil down on March 4 and 5.  Celebrate the wisdom of the trees and the Indigenous people’s art of syrup making with Maple Blueberry Wild Rice Coffee Cake. 

Root vegetables have a sweet, earthy flavor that seems made for roasting.  Beets, sweet potatoes, rutabagas and onions in any combination you like are a savory treat this time of year and you can make extra to freeze for a side dish or creamy soup!  They exemplify the invitation to eat seasonally in winter.  Storing them for lasting flavor is wisdom from the past.

Texas-style Shrimp and Grits might have been served for supper to President LBJ and Lady Bird Johnson by their personal chef Zephyr Wright.  As an African American woman from the south, she used her voice to share experiences and opinions with the President and he listened.  Let’s ask ourselves as progressive white women and men, how do we use our voices to speak for racial justice?

As the season of Lent begins, the Seasoned Franciscan offers a recipe for Minestrone Soup and a “recipe” for Lent from Christine Valters Paintner.  In her book “A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent”,  Christine poses the question: “What is my true hunger?”  Whether you have a long practice of Lenten reflection or are new to the season the summary of her reflections in this post may season these weeks before Easter with meaning.

Valentine’s Day is about celebrating those we love.  The tradition of giving chocolates in heart-shaped boxes for Valentine’s Day was started by the Cadbury company in 1868.  Chocolate, however, comes with a price.  To this day, children and forced labor are used to work many cocoa farms.  In addition, many cocoa farms contribute to illegal deforestation.  This post offers a great recipe for "Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cups" from Meredith Hink and information about Free Trade Chocolate.