**SPINACH, SPINACEA OLERACEA, PALAK, TALIM NUM**

Excerpts from Bender, Arnold E. 1990. Dictionary of Nutrition and Food Technology. Butterworths, Boston.

Leaves of Spinacia oleracea. A rich source of carotene and vitamin C; also contains oxalic acid, which renders calcium insoluble and non-available.
Analysis boiled per 100g: protein 5 g, carbohydrate 1.5 g, kcal 30 (130 kJ), Ca 600 mg, Fe 4 mg, carotene 6 mg, vitamin C 10-60 mg.

Excerpts from Passmore, Jacki. 1991. The Encyclopedia of Asian Food and Cooking. Hearst Books, New York.

Several different types of spinach and spinach-like vegetables are cultivated in Asia. In India and China amaranth has been grown for many centuries, and throughout Southeast Asia kangkong or water spinach is a popular vegetable./ Both have a similar taste and appearance to spinach. In Japan, horenzo, with its delicate, small, spear shaped and relatively flat leaves, is the local variety of spinach. The stems are a pink-red color, the flavor mild and sweet. It is very similar to Chinese spinach, and a cabbage-like Chinese vegetable known as “red in snow”-a delicate vegetable that is sued in both fresh and salted forms. Also known as palak (India); talim num (Philippines).

Garrett, Theodore Francis (edited by). 1898. the Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery. L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand, W.C. London. Vol. iv

There are several varieties of spinach (sometimes spelled spinage) cultivated in this country, chief of which are the winter and summer kinds; the former is known as prickly or winter spinach and the latter as round-seeded or summer Spinach.

Grimes, William. 2004. Eating Your Words. Oxford University Press.

is a widely cultivated Asian plant of the goosefoot family, with large, dark green leaves that are eaten raw or cooked as a vegetable. -
ORIGIN Middle English: probably from Old French espinache, via Arabic from Persian aspanak.

Excerpts from Hawkes, Alex D. 1968. A World of Vegetable Cookery. Simon and Schuster, New York.

Spinach, an important vegetable in our American diet, has been cultivated for ltierally thousands of years in its presumed native haunts, the southwestern parts of Asia. Botanists know it as Spinacia oleracea and include it in the odd Goosefoot Family.

There are many different varieties of Spinach now available, these having been developed largely through the efforts of professional plant breeders in this country. The handsome, characteristically rather arrowhead-shaped leaves that we eat are borne directly from the roots, and they vary in color from rich, almost black-green to a pale yellowish-green, and in texture from plane to markedly crumpled.

United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Assn. 727 N. Washington, Alexandria, VA 22314
JULY, 1975 original author, CLARICE SACKETT; scanned and edited by ZoeAnn Holmes

Spinach is Spinacia oleracea,"spina" in Latin meaning spiny fruit and"oleracea" meaning herbaceous garden herb. It is a member of the Chenopodiaceae (goosefoot) family which also includes Swiss chard and beets. It is a low-growing fleshy-leafed annual that forms a heavy rosette of broad, crinkly tender leaves. The glabrous (non-hairy) leaves, which are the edible vegetable portion, are ovate (oval, but broader toward the base) to orbicular (round) in shape with the lower leaves being wider and the higher leaves being narrower. The leaves may be savoyed (puckered) or smooth. Leaf stems are also edible, but less preferred because of toughness. The savoy leaved plants are usually preferred for fresh marketing; the smooth for processing. The leaves are lobed at the base and sometimes lobed on their sides.

Spinach plants should be well-developed and stocky. They should have fresh, crisp, clean leaves of good green color. Straggly, long-stemmed, overgrown plants or plants with seedstalks are undesirable. Plants with coarse leaf stems may be tough. Wilted spinach, or decaying spinach (with soft, slimy rot) is undesirable. Small, yellowish-green heart leaves are not objectionable. Most fresh market spinach is savoy type, but leaf type (whether savoy or smooth) is not an indicator of quality.

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