I love spinach and would like to grow some, but I hate the thought of washing individual leaves. Is there a quick and easy way out there?
Spinach
Not quick and easy but plan ahead. Select a spinach variety with smoother leaves (such as Space, Scarlet, Dash and Reflect hybrids), which are a lot easier to clean than the savoyed types (Tyee, Melody hybrids, Bloomsdale Long Standing OP). Mulch the plants when small to keep soil from splashing up onto the leaves. And invest in a salad spinner so you can rinse and spin leaves in a bunch.
I just toss a bunch of leaves in a colander and rinse, kind of turning them in a bunch while rinsing. Easy!
I also go for the biggest leaves possible, like Monstrueux de Viroflay.
Fill the sink or a basin with water, dump in your spinach and squish it up and down and leave it for a few minutes. Lift it all out of the water and put in a collander while you empty out the water. Repeat once or twice until you don't see anymore sediment in the bottom and you're done.
I put mine in a large bowl so that the sediment doesn't go down the sink.
Thanks for your recommendations. I was kind of hoping that there would be something out there that would make it easy. Well I love spinach and I'll work for it!
Helen, something interesting happened yesterday at Easter dinner. My nephew's wife was going on about purchasing this fancy blender form someplace called QVC which processed and heated the food, and how healthy they were eating. When I made a suggestion about trying some fresh veggies from my garden she balked and said "I know what you grow your food in." I was stunned by her comment and asked her if she though buying fruits and vegetables form WalMart or wherever she got her food was better. I just got the look, so I counter by telling her I would take a carrot directly from my garden, brush if off and eat it. No comment, just more of the look. I just looked back at her and said, My dirt was healthier than that stuff they sell at WalMart...end of discussion.
Point is Helen, I grow spinach and various loose leaf lettuce varieties in pots for winter salads. I simply snip off what I need, give it a quick cold water rinse in a calendar, add some dressing and eat. I know the thought of a bug or a speck of dirt on food grosses some people out, but unless you are eating food that has been treated with pesticides or something to preserve it which is what you are getting at the grocery store, then I think it's perfectly safe to eat your garden produce with very little preparation.
That must have been hard to deal with. Some people just get weird notions in their heads, don't they! Still, that was insulting of her to say that!
You know what, I actually found it very amusing. I have this philosophy, if I let someone offend me, then it's my fault. Just consider the source.
I really didn't take any offense at all. In fact I offered to loan her a book by Stifg Larsson (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) which I just finished reading not too long ago. I plan to drop it off later this morning after I go catch a trout for supper. Think I will throw in a package of frozen carrots to boot.
You're nasty! I'd probably save my carrots, though.
This message was edited Apr 26, 2011 7:31 PM
Gosh I thought I was being nice.
Not if you know she won't eat them because you actually grow them in yucky soil!!! ;-D
mraider3 I don't know what some people are thinking. Heaven forbid they ever find out that chickens poop on their eggs, cows poop in the barn that they are milked in. Oh no, no toilets for the cows! Argh, people add animal waste to their gardens. Well, maybe it's best they don't know or they might starve themselves to death.
I don't mind dirt it's just that I hate to be eating spinach and then crunch on some dirt.
Don't forget what we are made of, and like I said my soil is healthier than WalMarts produce. Think we have gone far enough on this subject.