Acceptable diet for a Russian?

[Kailey]

Since nothing will grow here for many months, I've been picking up packaged "Organic Fresh Herb Salads" from my local grocery store. I chose it because it was the only prepackaged salad without spinach. It contains:

Red and green romaine
Red and green oak leaf
Lollo rosa
Tango
Red and Green Chard
Mizuna
Arugula
Mache
Frisee
Radicchio
Parsley
Dill
Cilantro

Is all of this okay? I haven't even heard of half of this stuff. I've heard that romaine is bad... It seems like it's about 20% baby romaine. Should I remove some of it, or is that okay?

Thanks, everyone!

 

[jaizei]

You say it is the only one without spinach, is there another with spinach? The inclusion of spinach would not be a deal breaker for me. I also prefer spring mix over herb mix.

That said, if you are concerned about the oxalic acid in spinach then parsley and chard are probably a no go for you as they both contain it.

 

[Kailey]

I didn't know that parsley and chard contained oxalic acid... I am concerned about it, I will remove those from now on. I chose the herb salad because it had more ingredients in it (variety = good, right?) and because they only sell big bags of spring mix in my grocery store.. when I previously bought them, I ended up throwing away more than half of it.

I might consider spring mix when s/he has a larger stomach, though. It will eat anything, so long as it has radicchio in it. Why do you prefer it?

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I know there are some who make a big thing out of oxalic acid, but I never have and I grow some pretty healthy tortoises. So I get the Spring Mix with spinach and I add all the other available stuff like dandelions, grass, romaine collards and escarole, endive, and kale, stuff like that and all that added together makes a good tortoise salad. In fact, Bob's pen is full of clover...that's high in oxalic acid

 

[ascott]

I would feed both spring mix as well as the herb mix...I would not exclude all items with oxalic acid..as some of those items are great sources of vitamin a which is uber important....variety is key...so if you are not able to get some of the additional outdoor weeds then the spring and herb mix combined is great--i also agree organic....the herb mix is a great source for variety....my turtles love it as well as the torts...so does the local peacock....and if you buy the spring mix and herb mix...it makes a great salad for you too...so nothing will go to waste and go bad..

 

[Kailey]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I wish I could supplement his/her diet with some more interesting, non-grocery store items, but nothing is growing here anymore. Unfortunately for the tortoise, it's not unusual for winters to last until June here. My grocery store doesn't really carry anything suitable, aside from these premade salads, so hopefully s/he can wait it out.