Zen Spinach

Green Gulch Farm is back at the with greens of every description and a mouth-watering array of fresh baked bread. I arrived on the early side Friday morning and was happy to see Green Gulch's simple sign hanging above baskets of lettuce and chard.

It was clear that I was not the only one pleased to see them. The farm's devotees had been waiting. There was a line of people bagging produce. I noticed a friendly older couple buzzing about the stand, chit-chatting about how they had been waiting for this day for weeks. They had a cart and were stuffing bag after grocery bag full of greens. I was sure they would clean the place out, my mind grasping at how these two could consume that much roughage and what their weekly menu must look like. By 10 a.m., practically all the spinach had been bagged and I thought I was out of luck.

"We have more!" said Tanja Palmers, who works the market stall for Green Gulch. Thankfully she conjured up another box of spinach from the back of her truck, but take note, she would not give me a bag. You must bring your own or she'll sell you a bio-bag for a few cents. The older couple knew this of course and had brought their sacks from home.

"We're famous for our spinach," says Palmers. I asked her what was so special about it? "I think it's just that we've been growing organically for 30 years. We take good care of the soil and of the land. Growing it with a lot of awareness."

In case you didn't know, Green Gulch Farm is also a Soto Zen Buddhist center whose community members work the land. The center and the farm are nestled in the gorgeous green valley above Muir Beach. Their motto "is to awaken in ourselves and the many people who come here the bodhisattva spirit, the spirit of kindness and realistic helpfulness."

Soto emphasizes zazen, or sitting meditation, as the means to attain enlightenment. The farming part is about awareness.

"Understanding interconnectedness, understanding impermanence, birth and death: It's all right there on the farm," says Sara Tashker, head of Green Gulch Farm, on their web site.

Green Gulch invites the public to open meditation practice on Sunday mornings. You can also check out the farm at that time. They offer 6-month-long apprenticeships on organic farming in combination with meditation practice and Buddhist teachings. For six months, you meditate in the morning, work the farm in the evening and eat like well, a monk, but a well-fed monk. Spinach is extremely rich in antioxidants, is high in iron and folic acid, calcium and boasts a host of vitamins like Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K and is high in omega-3s.

So could eating this zen spinach lead you to attain enlightenment? Probably not, but it's worth a shot and it's crisp, rich in color and tastes heavenly. I made a spinach salad with what I picked out from Green Gulch Farm and used beautiful little quail eggs I also found at the market. Look for the Green Gulch Stand at the Mill Valley Farmers Market. They will be there with their zen greens through October.

Zen Spinach Salad

• 5-6 cups spinach leaves - washed
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes - chopped in half
• 1/2 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 Tbs thinly sliced red onion
• 12 quail eggs - boiled and sliced in half

Arrange spinach in a bowl and top with tomatoes, cheese, red onion and eggs. Toss with vinaigrette and serve. Serves 4

White Balsamic Vinaigrette

• 1.5 Tbs chopped shallot
• 1/2 cup Olive Oil
• 1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
• Salt
• Pepper

In a small bowl add shallot, vinegar, a dash of salt and pepper, whisk in Olive Oil. Add more salt to taste if needed.