How to Store Spinach? Save This Latest Storage Guide
Spinach is nutritious and especially tender and delicious in spring, but in reality, from harvest to being placed on the dining table, spinach can lose nearly half of its nutrients due to improper storage. So how should spinach be stored? Let us take a look at the storage methods for spinach below!
How to Select Spinach
1. It is best to choose spinach with short red stems and fresh, elastic leaves.
2. Choose spinach with thick leaves that spread out well, a wide leaf surface, and short leaf stalks. If there is any discoloration on the leaves, remove it.
How to Store Spinach
Spinach spoils very easily. As long as it is above freezing (close to 0°C), the lower the temperature, the longer the storage period. Stored at close to 0°C, it can be kept for about three weeks. As the storage temperature rises, the storage period shortens rapidly.
During transport, crushed ice can be used and placed on top of the spinach to achieve rapid precooling. In addition, attention must still be paid to maintaining humidity to prevent dehydration, but condensed water must not adhere to the leaves, so as to avoid increasing the rate of spoilage. Spinach can be stored in perforated plastic bags, which not only reduces water loss but also reduces physical damage. Storage in an atmosphere of 10~40% carbon dioxide and 10% oxygen can prevent leaf yellowing and maintain quality.
Methods for Storing Spinach in Winter
1. Ordinary freeze storage method: Spinach that needs cold storage is generally harvested at night when the ground freezes and can thaw again at noon. At harvest, keep about 1.6 cm of root, shake off the soil, sort and tie into bundles of about 2 kg each, place in a cool place to let the dew dry off and let the vegetable cool, then store by freezing when the weather turns colder. The storage site should be chosen in a shaded place, with the ground leveled, and several trenches 3.5 cm wide and 3.5 cm deep dug, with a trench spacing of 10~15 cm. Place the spinach roots downward into the trenches, with a total thickness of about 25 cm. In severe cold seasons, straw mats, etc. can be added on top to keep the temperature in the trenches at -8~-5°C.
2. Spinach freeze storage method without ventilation channels: Within the shaded range on the north side of a house or shade barrier, dig several trenches parallel to the shading object, with a trench width of 25~30 cm, a depth the same as the height of the spinach or slightly shallower, and a distance between trenches of about 20 cm. Place bundles of spinach that have undergone pre-storage upright in the trenches with roots downward, sprinkle dry soil over the bundles, with the soil thickness just enough to cover the spinach. Later, as the temperature drops, cover with soil in stages. The soil covering should be level, firm, and seamless to provide wind protection and moisture retention. The principle is to keep the temperature in the bundles as much as possible at -4~-6°C, so that the spinach is in a slightly frozen state.
3. Aboveground freeze storage method: 5~6 days before harvest, level the site and splash a layer of water, just enough to ensure the surface soil does not thaw. When storing the vegetables, first scatter some vegetable leaves or tree leaves as a base layer, then place the spinach bundle by bundle on top, and then cover around the vegetables with vegetable leaves or tree leaves to a thickness of 10~12 cm. When the inside of the spinach freezes, cover it with 10 cm of semi-dry sand to prevent the leaves from losing water.
4. Bagged self-generated modified atmosphere cold storage method: After harvest and sorting, tie the spinach into bundles of 0.5~1.0 kg. After heat dissipation and precooling, put them into polyethylene film bags 0.06~0.08 mm thick and 110×80 cm in size, with leaves facing each other and roots toward the two ends of the bag, about 15~20 kg per bag, and send them to cold storage shelves to lie flat. Leave them open and precool for another day and night, then insert a round rod about 2 cm in diameter into the bag opening and tie it tightly, then pull out the round rod, or tie the bag opening loosely, and leave a relatively large gap inside the bag. After sealing the bag, place it in cold storage at -1~1°C and 90%~95% relative humidity. Relying on the self-metabolic activity of the spinach in the bag to absorb oxygen and release carbon, a gas environment with lower oxygen and higher carbon dioxide can gradually be formed. At the same time, the internal humidity conditions are good, and it can be kept fresh for 2~3 months with little loss.
5. Combined-bed freeze storage method: Choose a plot where spinach grows vigorously and a combined-bed freeze storage combination. Each combination has three beds, of which the left bed and the right bed are harvesting beds, and the middle bed is the freeze storage bed. Before freeze storage, first use an iron shovel to cut off all the roots of the spinach in the freeze storage bed, with a depth of 1.5 cm into the soil, and do not disturb the plants when cutting everything. In the same way, lift the spinach from the left and right beds and cover it upside down on the middle freeze storage bed, with leaves facing downward and roots facing upward, so that the spinach from the 3 beds is combined into 1 bed. On the day of storage, cover the surface of the combined bed tightly with soil and pat lightly so that the upper and lower layers of spinach fit closely together to prevent cold wind from entering. When the temperature is too low, cover with another layer of fine soil 7~10 cm thick. Using this method, it can be stored until the Spring Equinox of the following year.