I Yam What I Yam And That’s All That I Yam

Reader David Barlow, otherwise known as Putz, who lives in Manti/Ephraim/Tooele (pick one), Utah, has suggested that now that we have explored cabbage, we should explore spinach. Actually, what he wrote was:

“delightful, simply delightful post on cabbage, a most appealing vegatable<>>>now why don’t you do a post on spinack”

Despite the facts that (a) he didn’t begin either of his sentences with a capital letter, (b) he ended his first sentence with the rather strange punctuation mark <>>>, (c) he didn’t end his second sentence (which, as all former potential Jeopardy contestants know, was in the form of a question) with any punctuation at all, (d) he misspelled vegetable, and (e) he also misspelled spinach, calling it spinack, I have decided to follow his suggestion after a fashion.

I say “after a fashion” because I have no intention of doing a post on another vegetable at this time, but I tell you what I will do, I will include ten links that will enable you to create your own post on all things spinack spinach.

Here they are:

1. Spinach -- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2. Ultimate Spinach -- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3. Basella alba -- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4. Spinach -- FarmVille Wiki -- Seeds, Animals, Buildings, Events

5. Red Spinach -- FarmVille Wiki

6. Spinach juice -- Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki

7. Creamed Spinach (a recipe)

8. Spanakopita (a description)

9. Spanakopita (a recipe)

10. Popeye the Sailor Man

In the first link alone, you will learn that spinach is thought to have originated in ancient Persia, that in 1533 Catherine de Medici (queen of France) so fancied spinach that she insisted it be served at every meal, that there are three basic types of spinach (savoy, semi-savoy, and flat/smooth leaf spinach), that spinach is packaged in air or nitrogen gas to extend its shelf life, that the United States is the world’s second-largest producer of spinach with 3 percent of world output (following the People's Republic of China, which accounts for 85 percent of output), and that the top spinach-producing U.S. states in 2004-06 were California (73 percent), Arizona (12 percent), and New Jersey (3 percent) with 12 other states reporting production of at least 100 acres.

If you have 100 spare acres just lying fallow and plenty of time on your hands, you can become a statistic in the next edition of Wikipedia’s article on spinach. If you don’t have any acres but still have plenty of time on your hands, you can play Farmville, make some creamed spinach, learn how to prepare spanakopita, or bone up on all things Popeye.

In any event, knock yourselves out. I can’t do all the work all the time, you know.

Until next time, I will be stompin’ at the semi-savoy.