THE MAINE MARKET BASKET

 A weekly news service for promoting 

 Maine's healthy, local and seasonal

 foods.

Featured crop: Spinach

Maine farmers and gardeners are now harvesting fresh spinach. A spring and fall crop, spinach does particularly well on Maine's ocean-cooled shores.

Spinach's health qualities are famous. It is a rich source of iron, calcium, vitamins A, C, E and several cancer-fighting antioxidants.

In addition to being the official health food of Popeye, spinach may also be the poster vegetable of the local foods movement.  Leafy greens such as spinach, collards, and kale lose many of their nutrients in transit and storage of more than a few days. Buying fresh spinach from a local source is the best way of unlocking its treasure trove of nutrients.

                                                                                                                 (high definition copyright-free photo available here) 

Shopping info:

Spinach can be bought loosely or in prepackaged bags. You can get better quality when you buy loosely, because you can examine all the leaves. When examining the leaves, pick the ones that are smaller and have a good green color to them. Look for stems that are fairly thin. Thick stems indicate overgrown spinach, which may be leathery and bitter.

Cooking info:

Spinach may be eaten raw in a salad or cooked.  Wash spinach carefully before serving or cooking.  The best way to do this is to fill your sink or a very large bowl with cold water.  Dunk the leaves and swish them around gently allowing the soil to settle to the bottom. Clean out the sink or bowl and repeat until no sand or debris appears.

If you are serving spinach as a salad, dry the leaves in a salad spinner.  Large stems should be removed.  When it comes to cooking spinach, less is more.  Spinach can be blanched (i.e. cooked very briefly in boiling water) for 30 to 60 seconds, steamed for 3-5 minutes or stir-fried for 4-6 minutes.

Featured Recipe:

Spinach and Chick-Pea Salad

Ingredients
10 ounces (roughly 8 cups) fresh spinach leaves, rinsed
One 15-ounce (or 19-ounce) can of chick-peas, drained and rinsed
1 bell pepper, green or red, finely diced
1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives or finely chopped onion
1 to 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/4 cup of olive oil
Salt and black pepper, to taste

Directions
Cook the spinach in a saucepan with the water clinging to its leaves, stirring, until wilted. Drain, squeeze dry, and finely chop. In a bowl combine the spinach with the chick peas, pepper, chives, lemon juice, oil, salt, and pepper. Serve as is or chilled with toasted bread or as a filling for pita pockets.

Did you know?

There are many different spinach varieties all of which fall into three main categories:

Savoy has dark green, crinkly and curly leaves. It is the type sold in fresh bunches in most supermarkets.

Flat/smooth leaf spinach has broad smooth leaves that are easier to clean than savoy. This type is often grown for canned and frozen spinach, as well as soups and processed foods.

Semi-savoy is a hybrid variety. It has slightly crinkled leaves. It has the same texture as savoy, but it is not as difficult to clean. It is grown for both fresh market and processing.

What else is in season?

Seasonal availability of produce in Maine varies from week to week and from one farm or microclimate to the next.  The following items are considered widely available statewide : asparagus, radish, salad greens, rhubarb, spinach, and scallions.

For more info on the seasonal availability of Maine produce, see the chart posted here.

Where to buy fresh, Maine-grown foods in your area:

       Find farmers markets in your area here

         Find farmstands in your area here

        Find CSA farms in your area here

     Find local "pick-your-own" farms here

For more info about the availability of Maine food and farm products, please see: http://www.getrealmaine.com

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About the Maine Market Basket:

The Maine Market Basket is a service of the Maine Nutrition Network and the Marketing Department of the Maine Department of Agriculture and paid for with funds from the US Department of Agriculture.  Coordinating partners include  the Eat Local Foods Coalition of Maine and the Fairfield Farmers' Market.  Texts and/or images from this bulletin may be reproduced.   For more info contact Roger Doiron: 883-5341 or e-mail marketbasket@eatmainefoods.org