Description
Please choose the size you would like. For reference, eight ounces of spinach (1/2 lb) is a little less than a gallon pail full.
One of the first vegetables available from our farm each spring, our spinach is over-wintered and/or spring planted inside our unheated high tunnels. The flavor of winter harvested spinach is quite sweet because the lack of water in the leaves makes the sugars more concentrated, which also aids in frost protection. When warm temps come, spinach springs into action as our earliest crop.
Storage: For maximum storage life, store at high humidity but not resting in water. This can easily be achieved by storing spinach inside a salad spinner in the fridge or inside a colander nested in a bowl in the fridge.
Spinach is closely related to other nutritionally powerful foods like beets and Swiss chard. They all have oxalic acid and a tell tale earth/dirt flavor in varying degrees. Spinach’s nutritional properties place it at the top of the nutrient-rich food list. Spinach is one of the best sources of dietary potassium and magnesium, two very important electrolytes necessary for maintaining human health. In general, spinach provides a whopping 839 milligrams of potassium per cup (cooked). As a comparison, one cup of sliced banana has about 539mg of potassium.
Spinach is also an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), manganese, folate, copper, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin E, calcium, and vitamin C. Spinach’s calcium, however, cannot be as easily absorbed as calcium from dairy, and you should only expect to absorb about 10 percent of it. Spinach is also a very good source of zinc, dietary fiber, phosphorus, vitamin B1 and choline. It contains a unique and beneficial mixture of phytonutrients, as well as anti-oxidants, flavonoids and carotenoids. Spinach is also one of the best non-heme (plant-based) sources of iron but it is difficult for us to absorb. The same is true of spinach’s protein content; most of the calories in spinach come from protein.
How can we absorb more iron from spinach? Knowing what foods to eat and not eat with spinach can help maximize your iron absorption. Spinach should be eaten in combination with iron facilitators such as Vitamin C. Choose a dressing with lemon, lime or orange juice to improve iron absorption. Eating non-heme iron rich foods with heme iron rich foods such as meat can also help increase absorption. Also, cooking spinach reduces the oxalic acid which is an iron inhibitor.
To ensure maximum iron absorption, it’s a good idea to avoid iron inhibitors such as phytic acid (which are high in grains and legumes), tannins, polyphenols (found in tea) and calcium when eating high non heme iron meals.