(Spinacia oleracea— Family Chenopodiaceae)
Spinach is thought to be native to Southwest Asia and unknown to the Greeks and Romans. First cultivated by the Persians, it is now cultivated throughout the world, with the exception of the tropics.
Although grown in China for centuries, it did not reach Europe until about 1100 CE after an introduction to Spain by the Moors. In the 16th century, it was still a novelty to Italy, but was becoming an established vegetable in Britain.
As with many foods, it began as a medicinal used for its mildly laxative effects, likely because of the oxalic acid. Although much lauded as a nutritional vegetable, spinach has a drawback in that, while containing high levels of iron and calcium, the rate of absorption is almost nil.
The oxalic acid binds calcium into an insoluble salt (calcium oxalate), which cannot be absorbed by the body. The same applies to the iron, as it is bound, leaving only 2-5% of the seemingly plentiful supply actually available for absorption.
The idea that spinach contained exceptional levels of iron originated in 1870 with Dr. E. von Wolf whose figures remained unchallenged until 1937, when it was discovered that the content was 1/10th the claim. The oversight resulted from a misplaced decimal point.
Extraordinarily high in vitamin C and rich in riboflavin, one cup of cooked spinach also contains a very high level of vitamin A, folate, magnesium, potassium, as well as vitamins E, B6, and thiamin.
Like other leafy greens, spinach has a high water content meaning, that when it is cooked, it shrinks considerably. One pound of leaves can be reduced to about one cup of the cooked product.
Since the iron in spinach is in soluble form, the water left from cooking will contain that element, as well as other water-soluble nutrients that should be used instead of thrown away
Despite its unusable iron and calcium content, it is still rich in other important minerals, proteins, and vitamins; and, of all the vegetable juices, spinach juice is said to be the most potent for the prevention of cancer cell formation. Research has shown that those who eat spinach daily are less likely to develop lung cancer.
For those less inclined to value the spinach water, it is said to make good matchpaper. During the 18th and 19th centuries, spinach water was used as touchpaper for fireworks since paper soaked in it would smolder well.
Traditionally, there are two main groups of spinach. The prickly-seeded varieties
which have lobed leaves and regarded as hardier, were known in 13th century Germany, and commonly grown in European monestary gardens a century later.
The smooth-seeded types,
which cope better with higher temperatures and are used for summer cropping, were first described in 1522; but modern cultivars are more adaptable.
The name is derived from and Old French word “espinache”, taken from its Arabic and Persian name, aspanakh, and still pronounced similarily in many Latin American countries.
There are four main types of spinach:
savoy
semi-savoy
flat-leaf
and baby.
Savoy spinach has crinkly, dark green curly leaves.
Flatleaf or smooth-leaf spinach is unwrinkled and have spade-shaped leaves that are easier to clean than the curly types. The stalks are usually very narrow and tasty.
Semi-savoy is a mix of the savoy and flat-leaf.
Baby spinach leaves are of the flat-leaf variety and are usually no longer than three inches. These tender, sweet leaves are more expensive and are sold loose rather than in bunches. It is often used in salads, but can also be lightly cooked.
All types have stalks that can be eaten and should not be wasted.
Spinach is not usually classified by variety, but according to sowing time (spring, summer, and winter spinach) and harvesting method.
Leaf is harvested by hand and root spinach is done by machine.
The boundary between summer spinach and the fall types is blurred, but both types can be eaten raw although fall spinach is tougher.
Winter spinach has the most robust and strong-tasting leaves, which are coarser and often curly. Only about 15% of the crop is sold fresh, with the remainder processed by the frozen foods industry.
Some varieties of spinach include the following:
America has thick deep green leaves.
Bloomsdale or Bloomsdale Long Standing is a savoy-type with fleshy, tasty leaves.
Dominant is a good all round variety.
Giant Winter is a late autumn and winter variety that can withstand some frost.
Horenso is a variety of spinach from Japan that has arrow-shaped leaves which taper to a point but having a mild, sweet flavour.
Medania is a summer variety able to withstand hot, dry weather.
Sigmaleaf is suitable for spring or autumn sowing.
Space has smooth dark green leaves, ideal for any season.
Trinidad is for summer and autumn and has dark green leaves.
Orach(e), garden orach(e), spinach plant, mountain spinach, arroche, French spinach, butter leaves
(Atriplex hortensis – Family Chenopodiaceae)
Orache is a robust weed that, from the Middle Ages until the 19th century, was known as a spinach plant widespread throughout central and southern Europe. Now, only an insignificant quantity is cultivated. It is closely related to the spinach, which increasingly replaced it, despite the fact that it contains three times as much Vitamin C than spinach.
Leaves can be green, yellow, red, and varigated.
The plant is often used as a decorative annual that can grow to over six feet in height, but it does require much sunshine. Several of its close relations are known as saltbushes because of their salty taste.
Orache grows wild throughout Europe as far east as Siberia and all around the Mediterranean coast. From the time of the rise of the Mediterranean civilizations, orache was cultivated as a green vegetable to be used as spinach is now. Although the flavour is similar to spinach, the leaves are less succulent. The green orach was used in Italy to colour pasta. Another use was mixing it with sorrel to alleviate the bitter acid flavour of the sorrel.
Wild spinach, Good King Henry, Fat Hen, Allgood
(Chenopodium bonus-henricus – Family Chenopodiaceae)
Wild spinach is related to quinoa,
but indigenous to Europe.
Eaten raw or cooked, it was once an important leaf vegetable which has now been supplanted by the cultivated spinach, despite containing substantially more nutrients.
Colonies of the plant may be found on medieval sites in England and Wales. The English name came from a complicated origin involving another plant which was toxic.
In order to distinguish the two, the nontoxic plant was referred to as the “allgood”, or Good King Henry, which was once an esteemed medicinal plant because of its blood purifying and laxative effects. Today it is gathered as a wild vegetable or grown only by home gardeners.
It is found widely in the temperate zones of Eurasia, where the flowers are also eaten. The young shoots have a flavour that resembles asparagus.
Lamb’s quarters, goosefoot, pigweed, fat hen, wild spinach, magenta lamb’s quarters
(Chenopodium album – Family Chenopodiaceae)
Lamb’s quarters is another spinach-like plant with names similar to other greens, but it is not related to “lamb’s lettuce”.
It is used in the same way, raw or cooked, as spinach. Of the fifty or so Chenopodium species in the US, ten were introduced unintentionally from such diverse places as Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia; and, until recently, Chenopodium album was a name used to designative native American species, which can no longer be done.
This green is a dusky bloom-powdered with blue-green leaves, pink-streaked stems, leaf-like buds, and countless little seeds, all of which are edible. Both the cultivated and wild forms tend to be rangey and scruffy if grown beyond a foot or so, but taste remarkably similar when cooked at any stage of development.
The bright magenta lamb’s quarters
makes a striking accent when used raw; but, when cooked, it loses its colour. A larger form called Magentaspreen is similar to the lamb’s quarters when young and small.
