It's the dead of winter here in
Pennsylvania, and I'm on the hunt for one
of the most nutrient packed foods on the
planet. The earth is frozen, daylight is
short - not good conditions for growing
any vegetable. But I found a place where
this one grows year round. So I'm dying
to find out: Spinach - How Does It Grow?
This is BrightFarms, literally the size
of a football field.
This greenhouse pumps out 75,000 pounds
of spinach a year. But here's the coolest
part: they don't grow spinach in soil,
they grow it in the water.
This kind of growing is called "hydroponics".
"Hydro" means water; "ponics" means work.
In hydroponics, plants are grown in nutrient
and rich water that gets reused.
With record droughts and rising demand for
local foods, hydroponics could be the future of
farming. Although, really, hydroponics is
thousands of years old!
The ancient Egyptians farmed on rafts
along the Nile; and the Aztecs on lakes.
In the 13th century, Marco Polo marveled
at the floating gardens in China. Here at
BrightFarms, their spinach floats on
boards over ponds filled with well water.
These boards have small slits for roots to dangle through.
Head farmer Jason Jackson basically plays the role of god...
With a click of the mouse, he controls the heat, the moisture,
the daylight - all the conditions that
conventional farmers can't control.
What's trickier here, is perfecting the
mix of nutrients he gives the plants.
Without soil, there's no buffer between the delicate
roots and the potent fertilizer.
(Jason): Uh...If I don't get it quite right, I could potentially
plants, at which point we'd have to
drain the pond...And today I have not had to drain upon...
(Nicole): Have you killed any plants?
(Jason): I have not...killed any of them...
(Nicole): Okay...okay but wait,
there are...there's forty thousand gallons
of water in that pond...(Jason): Yep.
(Nicole): And hydroponics is
supposed to conserve water - how does that work?
(Jason): we actually use 80 percent less
water than outdoor conventional AG, and
we do so by recirculating the water in
the ponds themselves.
Not all hydroponic farms recirculate
their water. Some think nothing about
draining the ponds, since it's always
easier to start with fresh water.
But Jason likes to nurture the ponds'
ecosystem, so when it comes to spinach, he
enlists lettuce - because it helps fights
spinach's worst enemy: a fungus called
Pythium, that can wipe out a whole crop overnight.
Growing spinach hydroponically
is basically a race between spinach
and Pythium. Pythium spreads by little spores that swim...
Swimming is not so easy in the soil, but
here in the pond, its Pythium heaven...
Because lettuce is stronger against Pythium, it
helps keep the Pythium population down,
which means Jason can avoid using killer
chemicals like fungicides.
After 14 days on the water, the leaves are still small
and tender, and ready to be harvested as baby spinach.
One by one, each raft goes through the cutting machine.
And then it's on to packaging, BrightFarms harvests, packages,
and ships its spinach to stores within 24 hours.
Calorie for calorie, spinach packs more
nutrients than almost any other
vegetable. It's one of the best for
vitamin K, which helps keep bones healthy.
Now, I love baby spinach in a salad but
if you're cooking with spinach, you can
use frozen spinach, it's just as
nutritious and probably easier to find.
I've squeezed out the water from a
package of thawed spinach, and we're
going to turn this into cheesy spinach
bites - or as my producer prefers to call them...
(Mark): Extra special super delicious cheesy bites...
These are great as a party appetizer, as
an after-school snack...you can even throw
some in a bowl of chicken soup - but it's
really important to remember: after
eating any spinach dish - that you just
might have a little something in your teeth...