Spinach Picking / Packing
Spinach – a native to central and southwestern Asia – is an edible flowering plant with a scientific name Spinacia Oleracea that belongs to the Amaranthaceae family. This plant can withstand winter in temperate region that’s why it’s one of the most popular plants harvested during the autumn sowing in Australia. Studies show that Spinach is one of the healthiest foods in the world. It is rich in Calcium, especially when fresh, boiled, steamed or even frozen. Same as other green leafy vegetables, this plant is packed with vitamins and minerals – mainly Vitamins A and B. In Australia, Spinach is at times being mistaken as the silverbeet “spinach.” This is unreasonable for Spinach to be compared to a silverbeet as you cannot compare a replica to the original.
It was said that Spinach originated in Ancient Persia, now known as Iran and other neighboring countries. Then it was brought to India then introduced to Ancient China, where it was called the “Persian vegetable.” Record shows that this plant was introduced to China by Nepa,l almost certainly in 647 AD. It was then introduce in the Mediterranean and to Spain in the 12th century. From the rough-seeded spinach that was introduced in Germany during the 13th century to being smooth-seeded in 1552, which is now used commercially.
Spinach is a minor crop in Western Australia and is commonly called as the English Spinach. Spinach, typically eaten boiled or steamed, is now on high demand during the past few months for it is currently used in pre-prepared salad mixes. During the months of May to October, Perth seems to produce the best Spinach in the world, however, it is sold year long.
If you are an adventurous traveler, you can still get an opportunity to earn money while on vacation. Usual backpacker farm hand job gives more or less AU$20 per hour and work for 4 days in a week. Naturally, Australia’s agriculture industry is growing as years pass by so you can take advantage of all Farm Hand jobs available, not only in the spinach industry.
This plant needs to be sowed in a well-drained garden bed. You need to make sure to add lime where soil pH in Calcium Chloride is less than 6.0 because spinach is very sensitive to acid conditions. To avoid pest problems, cut a plastic bottle in half and put the cylinder side of the bottle on each seedling. It can be planted any time of the year but planting between the months of March and August materializes high quality spinach. Spinach nowadays is being harvested during their “baby leaf” stage for the salad market. It is said that spinach has high salt tolerance compared to other vegetables but it will not tolerate water logging. It can only endure water up to 635mS/M.
For those who cater the salad market, baby leaf needs to be in their highest quality. Spinach is marketed thru its appearance. It is very essential for growers to produce high grade spinach. Any problem such as leaf yellowing or cosmetic blemish on the plant will affect its market value; worse comes to worse, rejected. Spinach sold in the market is not advisable to be sprinkled with water during dry/hot season for it will cause the leaves to stick together. It should be stored in 0 degrees Celsius to sustain its delicious appearance.
