Spinach and Popai25-12-11

Happy holiday dear friends,
If someone received ginger that is not hard, please let me know so I can credit your account and send you new ginger. One of our boxes froze, sorry.

Best way to preserve your wet greens fresh, alot of sweet rain came down, is to dry them or wrap them in a towel and than put them in plastic bag in the fridge.

For those who have not yet heard - a green revolution in Jerusalem!More Details
A special Yoga class for Hanuka in Modi'in. Instructed by Maya, a veteran garden eater.

And our weekly green is... on the occasion of my son Ari's birthday, which is also Popeye's birthday (Jan 17), which this year is celebrated during Hanuka, an especially enlightening* vegetable - the spinach!!
Some facts and non-facts:
• Spinach does not give you super powers!

Notice it is local organic spinach!

• Spinach, Spinacia Oleracea, is native to central asia. Yet it was the Persians that cultivated it first, about 3000 years ago.
• In Europe it arrived first to spain, with the moors, and received it's name there. Spain = Spinach...

• "Ala Florentine" is a term in French menus that indicates that the dish is served with a side of spinach.
• Popeye the sailor man increased the sales of spinach in the USA by 50%
• Spinach is not extraordinarily abundant with iron - this myth was mistakenly born due to a typing error that misplaced the decimal point...
• Spinach has great nutritional value! It has plenty of chlorophyll, Calcium, quartzetin - an antioxidant and anti inflammatory, Vitamins A, K, and C, folic acid and beta carotene.
• Spinach probably has an enzyme that aids in reducing blood pressure, and spinach juice is regarded as a very good green juice in preventing cancer.
• Spinach can be eaten fresh, steamed, sautéd... in soup, quiche, omelet, stuffing...etc., etc.
• Most of the nutrients are water soluble, so in order to not lose the rich nutritional value it is better to steam spinach rather than to boil it. If you have boiled it, use the spinach-water in a soup, bread or just drink it.
• In the Jerusalem Talmud "Tardin (spinach) water was mentioned. Also Nissim Krispel recommends drinking spinach water to care for anemia, liver problems, colitis, diabetes, ulcer, and thyroid gland disorder.
• The Rambam recommended eating spinach to soften the stomach and prevent constipation.
• Happy birthday to Ari and Popeye! Wishing you lots of fresh spinach, healthy and organic, not canned. May you stay young and strong forever.
• More about spinach: http://maggiesgarden.co.il/no-winter14-11-1/
• And more: http://maggiesgarden.co.il/spinach17-1-10/
Happy holiday, strengthening and enlightening to all of us,
With big hopes for more rain, to allow for all this green....
Yours,
The gardeners, the market people and Maggie.
* So why is spinach especially enlightening? Because of certain acids it contains. Apparently, paper soaked in spinach water is flammable and was used as a firework in the past...

לביבות תרד וגבינה / איילת בן-יוסף

לביבות תרד ואגוזים של רונית מושל

And I expect in our winter baskets this week:

Lettuce

Parsley

Cabbage

Kohlrabi

Small broccoli

Avocado

Squash

Potatoes

Some Ramiro peppers

Tomatoes

And Dutch cucumbers

Larger ones also:

Celery

Fennel

Mangold

And Dill

Fruit baskets

Bananas

Apples and Oranges