The 2009 ASHS Annual Conference

Consumers have become accustom to spinach leaves becoming smaller in almost all spinach products that are eaten as the fresh product.  Some spinach genotypes can produce very large individual leaves when allowed to grow to a more mature stage and some individual leaves can reach lengths of 18 inches or more.  These large leaves offer many options for use with various specialty food products whether as wraps with the large flat leaves or as individual bowls from the large savoy and semi savoy leaves.  This could also create a demand for new specialty products that could be provided by smaller growers.  These would be very high value products because of the need to hand harvest and to handle the spinach leaves individually.