Turnip Greens success!

[tortoisenerd]

After searching about 12 grocery stores and asking produce managers, I finally found some turnip greens. They were about 40 miles North of my house at Walmart, lol. The little guy loved them. Had to share that bit since I've been complaining for awhile I couldn't find them anywhere.

I'm still sad though that no one sells greens by the pound here as they are all pre-bunched. A baby tort can only eat so much...

Trevor is up to 54 grams this week, and about 58 mm.

 

[galvinkaos]

I agree it is hard to buy for a baby. I got lucky and found pre cut and washed prepackaged eurogreens - collard, swiss chard, mustard and kale. The bag actually stayed fresh for the week and they are getting the last of it tomorrow. I did have to pick out a couple of yucky pieces yesterday.

Dawna

 

[tortoisenerd]

Trader Joe's near me has one with collard, turnip, mustard, and spinach. It's chopped up so picking out the spinach would be a pain so I haven't bought it. I hope to get enough sprouts going to feed him a significant amount from home but so far there has just been enough for snacks.

 

[galvinkaos]

I found it at albertson's.

Dawna

 

[Crazy1]

Guess I'm lucky, I can get most of the greens, turnip, collard, kale, dandelion, even cactus at the Stater Bros near me. But when I only had a few I found a lot of creative ways to fix greens for me to eat too as even one bunch seemed to go bad. Now I am eating much healthier and I even buy greens just for me as my "Herd" has increased. lol

 

[tortelini]

Kate~I know for a fact Safeway sells bulk spring mix up there (I worked for their company).....not all of them, but the high volume stores almost always carry it. I can find out which ones buy it frequently get it in from a friend who still works there. Sometimes they will even save some of their trim for you, especially if it's just a small amount you are looking for.

 

[nrfitchett4]

wow, it still amazes me that lack of greens in some locations. Here, even walmart sells collards, mustards and turnips year round. Usually .97 for the bunch. HEB has good spring mix, both with and without spinach.

 

[Chucky]

Turnip greens are about the only thing I can not find around here, well those and cypress mulch for the redfoot enclosures.

 

[tortoisenerd]

Oh I have no problem getting everything but turnip greens...every single grocery store I frequent also has the organic bulk spring mix I buy by the lb if I don't want a whole bag for the week (spring mix is the only one I've found by the lb). I was wanting to buy greens such as turnip and mustard by the lb so I can get one or two pieces instead of a huge head which honestly I end up throwing out about 75%! We'll eat lettuces, but not the healthier roughage like kale or collards. This week I found out that the little guy doesn't even like the collard greens (he turned up his nose at them every day for a week).

I actually have a huge selection of obscure greens, organic galore, etc....I was just intrigued to never find turnip greens (which are actually more desirable to the high Ca/P and lower oxalic acid content vs. some of the other greens I supplement with the spring mix). There are a lot of organic specialty stores but even when I asked they didn't want to order the turnip greens as they didn't have enough requests.

I may have to ask about them saving trimmed off stuff--but then I'd have to wait for a call, and run down to the store and maybe get something. I don't end up spending much money a week, and feel bad about tossing stuff, but it's manageable. Hopefully either my tort food crop will pick up or I'll at least by able to compost the scraps if we get a yard with our next rental. If I buy the spring mix (no waste), and have some sprouts growing, I may only buy 1 or 2 other items for the week (spending $1-3 each). Sometimes it will be something that we'll also eat, sometimes not.

They have some awesome bunches of dandelion greens around here. They are really gorgeous and so huge that I have to break off the bottom half because they are too thick for him to bite. I can manage a couple days of dandelion green salad but it's rather bitter!

 

[galvinkaos]

Ask your produce guy what day they get their shipments. They will clear out anything that is wilted and toss it. My friend has large and small torts and her hubby goes every Monday am to the local grocery store and they give him the weeks discards. She sorts out the too wilted from the good and feeds the torts. She started this when her business declined and she was worried about the expenses. Some weeks she gets several boxes and some weeks only a little. There is also a lot of variety week to week. If it is already store "trash" they are really cooperative on setting it to the side and you won't mind tossing the stuff you won't use. I have thought about doing it for the variety and taking the excess to her. (Maybe when everyone wakes up at her house )

Dawna