We’ve become a nation
of Popeyes. We are eating record amounts of spinach - five times more
fresh spinach than we did in the 1970’s and the highest levels
since the 1950’s, when parents urged their kids to eat spinach
to be strong just like the animated cartoon sailor.
The big difference is that popeye ate his spinach straight from a
can to give him strength before he pumeled his nemesis, Bluto. Americans
have all but abandoned the can for fresh spinach.
According to figures from the U.S Department of Agriculture’s
Economic Research Service, Annual consumption of all kinds of spinach
- fresh, frozen and canned - jumped 66 percent in the decade between
1992 and 2002. Canned spinach slipped to a minuscule portion of the
market, but fresh spinach has exploded.
U. S. per capita consumption of spinach has reached 2.4 pounds a year,
USDA researchers said in a January 2004 report. This is small compared
with some other vegetables - per capita fresh tomato consumption is
almost 18 pounds per person, for example, but still a huge jump considering
that, in the bad ol’ days of 1975, we barely choked down 5 ounces
of the vitamin-rich, dark green leaves
.
What’s driving the growth is the popularity of those plastic
bags of triple-washed spinach in the supermarket and, in particular,
the “explosive growth in ...baby spinach.” Baby spinach
increasingly show up in salads at restaurants, salad bars and at home,
says the government.
Spinach has undergone such an extreme makeover that 56 percent of
readers surveyed by the food magazine Bon Appetit ranked it as their
favorite vegetable, beating our popular choices like asparagus and
broccoli. The survey, summarized in the March issue, asked 10,000
readers to rank a dozen vegetables in terms of preference, according
to tanya steel, New York editor of the magazine.
“This is the seventh time we’ve done the survey, and spinach,
by far, rated as the top favorite. For years, it’s been asparagus.
We were surprised - this is totally bubbled out of nowhere.”
Spinach growers were delighted as well - but not at all surprised.
Maggie Bezart with Ocean Mist Farms, a major grower of spinach in
central California, says the eighty year-old company has seen a steady
surge in demand for fresh spinach, particularly in the past five years.
“We have increased our spinach production between 7 and 15 percent
a year because of the demand for high-quality spinach”, she
says.
Baby spinach, with its small, flat, tender leaves, was the key to
the rebirth, she believes. “Once baby spinach came out, people
started eating it fresh, not cooked,” Bezart says.
Bags of spinach also have caught on at area farmers markets. Chip
and Susan Planck, owners of Wheatland Vegetable Farms in Purcellville,
have switched to selling plastic, 8-ounce bags of spinach at the 13
farmers markets where they sell their produce.
“People won’t buy it loose if they have to stick their
hand into a cold basket and root around in a wet mass,” Chip
Planck says. “We put it in bags like the supermarket does. Then
people will buy a couple bags.”
A cool-weather crop, spinach is planted in the late fall and early
spring and is harvested until the summer heat sets in, he says.
Spinach popularity nationwide began creeping upward in the ‘80’s,
with the popularity of salad bars and pre-washed bags of lettuce.
But what really made the difference, say Bezart and others in the
industry, was the technology to wash and pack fresh spinach without
damaging the easily brusied leaves. Pre-washed spinach was a boon
to busy cooks who didn’t like the hassle of rinsing the dirt
and grit from fresh spinach, but flat leaf and baby spinach, in particular,
needed gentle washing and quick cooling so they didn’t turn
slimy by the time they reached consumers.
“When the wash line improved, spinach improved,” Bezart
says.
With increasing consumer demands for quality, some spinach is now
washed and packed right in the field, says Daniel Sumner, director
of the University of California’s Agriculture Issues Center
in Davis.
California currently supplies two-thirds of the country (Arizona and
Texas supply most of the rest) and has been the forefront of fresh
spinach marketing and technology. “We even get the elementary
schools here to grow spinach,” Sumner says. “You can talk
about kids not liking spinach, but they like eating a salad of spinach
they grew from seed.”
Technology also is changing the demand for the traditional varieties
of spinach. The three basic types are savoy, with crinkly, curly leaves,
typically sold in fresh bunches; semi-savoy, which has slightly crinkled
leaves that offer the crisp texture of savoy but are not as difficult
to clean; and flat leaves.
Because it is easier to wash, flat leaf spinach has become the dominant
variety grown and sold on the West Coast. Bezart thinks that trend
will soon spread across the country.
“I think your going to see more flat leaf
spinach sold east of the Mississippi,” she says. “There
will still be consumers who prefer curly-leaf, but you’ll see
more turning to baby and flat-leaf spinach. We don’t even see
curly spinach in stores out here [in California] any more. It’s
all flat-leaf.”
Making spinach easier to use has helped increase consumption, but
consumers also know it’s good for them, Sumner says. “The
word’s gotten out that spinach has important micronutrients,”
he says.
Recent research has found that spinach is packed with antioxidants,
including beta carotene and lutein, which promote eye health. Spinach
is also an excellent source of vitamins A and C, plus minerals including
folate, manganese and iron. Although popeye didn’t know it,
some of the iron in cooked spinach is blocked by the production of
oxalic acid that occurs during heating. To get the most of the iron
in cooked spinach, nutritionists advise adding some vitamin C to your
meal - a squirt of lemon juice, or some oranges or strawberries for
dessert - to increase the amount of iron the body can absorb.
The Facts About Spinach
Who eats the most, men or women?
Women generaly consume more spinach than men - 2.53 pounds per capita
annually, compared with 2.21 for men. Women eat more fresh and frozen
spinach, while men eat more canned, according to U.S. Department of
Agriculture data.
Who eats the least?
Teenagers. Total spinach per capita consumption was lowest for teens
(under a pound a year), with teenage girls eating just a half a pound
- the lowest among all groups.
What’s the geographical distribution of
spinach eaters?
They love it in the West, but not as much in the Midwest.
According to the USDA, the Northeast and West eat the most fresh spinach,
while the South eats the most canned. The Midwest eats the least spinach
in all categories
How good for you is it?
One cup of spinach has 7 calories, but provides 56 percent of the
daily recommended amounts of vitamin C, 14 percent of vitamin A and
5 percent of iron.
Who is Popeye?
The spinach hero is credited with spurring a 33 percent increase in
spinach consumption, saving the spinach industry during the 1930’s
Depression, according to King Features. Popeye first appeared as a
comic strip in 1929. In 1933, he made his way to cartoons, where he
would eat a can of spinach to give hime extra strength before a brawl.
