I love spinach and I love Virginia Postrel

so it shouldn't be surprising that I find her post on spinach to be especially pleasing. (Is it too obvious how I found it?)

Even as a spinach-loathing child I liked the stuff as salad greens, but back then the only way to get fresh spinach was to grow it yourself, pick it early before it got bitter, and spend a lot of time washing the dirt out of the leaves' many wrinkles. The process was all very bioregionally correct but not exactly a recipe for year-round consumption.

In the late sixties and early seventies I was convinced by Popeye cartoons that spinach was the secret to great physical strength, so I choked the s41+ down as best I could. At first it was canned, reheated and eaten with yellow banana peppers. Then we started a garden and had it fresh in salads. Since then there have been myriad recipes including spinach as a main ingredient, that have truly made it palatable.

Grab some at the local salad bar with your lettuce. You won't regret it.