Well, it looks like the Great Spinach Debacle of 2006 is winding down.
Final tally: One dead. Up to 200 sick. And untold long-term financial losses to farmers big and small, most of whom never have produced a single leaf of tainted spinach.
It’s been a dismal month for our favorite leafy green, and there’s no telling how long it will take for the industry to rebound. So, as we gingerly dip our forks back into our spinach salads, it’s a good time to think about what it all means.
Nationwide food scares like this are a relatively new phenomenon. Not because our facilities or methods are getting less safe (if anything, the opposite is true) but because nationally distributed food is still a relatively new phenomenon.
We’ve been doing this on a large scale for only a half-century and or so. There are still kinks we need to work out, dangers we have yet to encounter, complex systems that are far from perfected.
Truth be told, in the long eye of history, it remains to be seen whether industrial agriculture on such a massive scale can ever be perfected. There will always be challenges and unimagined side effects.
But one thing is sure: The spinach situation shed light, yet again, on how collectively clueless we are about our food, what’s in it, were it comes from and how it’s processed and transported.
As individual consumers, it’s up to us to know how and where our food is produced. We can’t trust that our political and business leaders have it under control. Politicians have no idea what goes on in grocery stores. All many of them know about food-related issues is what they hear from lobbyists, and we all know how trustworthy they are.
We must demand, by writing to our representatives with paper and ink, that the government hold food growers and processors to ever-higher standards.
And in the long run, as a culture, we need to move closer to our farmers, not farther away. We’ve developed into a society that thinks food comes from the grocery store, not the farm or ranch. We need to understand and value the extremely difficult and demanding work they do.
The more we know, the less we’ll have to fear.
Meantime, even though I’m back to eating spinach with abandon, I’ve been reacquainting myself with the rest of the leafy greens under those grocery-
store sprinklers. The chards, the kales, the collards – none of which we eat enough of. All are simple to make and unreasonably healthful.
Here’s how:
(Note: Before cooking, soak greens in a sinkful of water to wash off all lingering grit.)
Chard: Stems and leaves are both good to eat, but stems take longer to cook. Remove tough stems, chop into bite-sized bits, and sauté with oil and one clove smashed garlic for 6 minutes. Chop leaves roughly and add to sauté pan. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt. Toss with tongs and cook about 4 to 6 minutes or until leaves are wilted. Toss stems back into leaves. Drizzle with olive oil, squirt with lemon, dust with cracked pepper, and serve hot.
Kale: Remove tough stems and discard. Chop leaves. In a medium pan, heat a little butter and a little olive oil. Sauté 1 clove garlic and 1 tablespoon freshly chopped garlic for 1 minute. Add kale, toss to coat, sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Drizzle with olive oil and red wine vinegar, dust with cracked pepper, and serve hot.
Collards: While the traditional Southern way to make collards is to braise the leaves all day with ham hocks, there are quicker ways. Use kitchen scissors to snip 3 slices bacon into 1/2-inch bits. Sauté in the bottom of a large saucepan, then remove with slotted spoon to crisp up. Add 1/4 cup chicken stock to the saucepan. Remove stems from collards, then cut into 1/2-inch strips. Add to saucepan and stir to coat. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt over greens. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until leaves are wilted, adding more stock if necessary. Uncover for the last 5 minutes to cook off the last of the water. Toss bacon bits back over the top, add a few red pepper flakes, and squirt the whole mess with lemon juice. Serve hot.
Dining critic Tucker Shaw can be reached at 303-954-1958 or at dining@denverpost.com.
