Grocery Store Greens Good

[Kapidolo Farms]

My Basic diet, (not all the painful details) includes lots of greens I get from the grocery store.

The basic are Romain, (Escarole, Radicchio, Frisse as "Santa Barbara Mix), mulberry, and hibiscus. To these greens I add cut fresh or wetted dry grass. A frequent green rotated in is Arugula aka rocket.

I also rotate in and out all of these found at the local grocery store. The price was blocked for the concern of one of the people working there -> H-mart.

I can also get lots of lemon grass which the tortoises like, but right now I grow my own. I can buy one pound blocks of frozen lemon grass, as might be used in soups, I've not tried that out yet for the tortoises.

I add nutrient rich supplements as well, but for the greens this is working well. The primaries, Romaine and Santa Barbara mix, are handy and very inexpensive when bought in bulk. The others are mixed in as available, and to not give opportunity to stubborn tortoises described by the phrase "My tortoise will only eat ..."

I add the grass in the amount of "as much as will stick" to whatever other greens are offered. Funny, they for the most part don't eat the live grasses in the enclosures, but chow down on it in the salad.

Will

 

[parrotlady]

What store (name)? I have not seen some of the things you pictured. Inquiring minds want to know. Is it an oriental market? I would love to try some of the things you mentioned.

 

[wellington]

Ditto. I have never seen squash leaves for sale. Would love to know the name of the store and if it's not a com on chain, the kind of store it is. Like Heath, ethnic, etc.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

What store (name)? I have not seen some of the things you pictured. Inquiring minds want to know. Is it an oriental market? I would love to try some of the things you mentioned.

Perhaps not well placed in the OP, but the store is H-mart. There is also a Viet Namese grocery here, Vinh- something, and a few others, Lucky Seafood etc. When I lived in New Jersey the 'asian' grocery stores were even more numerous than here in sunny San Diego, and often simply named "Asian Foods".

In Philadelphia most of this was available at a store catering to people from the Indian subcontinent.

Will

 

[forujade00]

In Maryland it is called G-Mart. It is an international market.

 

[wellington]

See, I have never heard of any of those here in Chicago. We do have a lot of ethnic food stores, but they are not on the north side where I live. Sorry, Will, I thought the H-Mart was a misspell or auto correct of some sort.

 

[Sulcata_Sandy]

I have never seen ANY of those greens. Dandelion? I had no idea anyone would sell that. People pay good money to have dandelion poisoned from their yards.
I def let mine grow.

Thanks for posting, I will scour Asian markets when I'm in the city.

 

[tortoise5643]

I wish pur produce store had all that variety

 

[Yellow Turtle]

Will, do you use this diet to all species which are grazers as well? Because if I use this kind of diet, usually my torts will become choosy and only pick the greens over the grass cuts

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

I make all the "particles" of differt greens such that they are not well able to do that. Water to some extent acts like glue holding different things together.

When at the Philadelphia zoo, I mixed a very small amount of banana in, a tradition for some reason, that made all the particles stick together somewhat, now I use aloe. It is sticky, and makes different pieces of one kind of green stick to another. The leopards don't like the sesame leaves, while the small manouria eat whatever they can get their beaks on. Pancakes will reject or favorable seek one thing over another on any given day, but might go back the next day and eat the rejected item, now more dry.

I think they are conservative to try new things sometimes. If it keeps appearing in the food offered they will try it, if of five animals housed together, two try it, the others seem to trust that and will try it. Trying it can be a many meal effort, as if they are waiting to see how what they ate effects them.

The leopards consistently show dislike for the sesame leaves, every one likes the squash leaves. The pancakes will preferentially pick out the aloe, it is very sticky.

They all like the methi, it does taste good to me as well. It usually has small yellow flowers, they will pick those out, as they eat a larger particle also with the leaves.

I'll post some images of the prepared food process next time I put it all together, later today.

Will

 

[parrotlady]

Thanks for all the info. I will have to check out the Asian markets here in Tucson.

 

[Yvonne G]

I did a GOOGLE search for "H-Mart" and it came back with many different Asian Groceries, one of which is here in my town. It's a little far from where I live, but I'll keep it in mind for the next time I'm over in that direction.

Thanks for the pictures, Will. But I must say the greens all look pretty wilted and not real fresh.

 

[BeeBee*BeeLeaves]

Excellent Will, Thank you. Lemon grass? Who knew?

In our part of the world, we have recently seen Middle Eastern markets go in and they have dandelions and arugula all the time. Latino markets carry nopales/cactus pads since it is a staple for their culture and just yesterday I bought prickly pears, 6 for 97 cents (yep, that's what I said). Also, the 99 Cents Only store has produce. For 99 cents! I know these are only in the southwest. They have had Earthbound organic salad mixes like Power Greens, Herb Blend, the kind in the clear tub often. And Asian markets, again, because of their culture, carry a lot of different greens. Greens are a staple for them. Our country was rather gentrified for decades in the produce selection department. The diverse culture fusion, with these markets filling a need, rocks for tortoise keepers. For us, and our keep, actually. Keepers can get healthier too. One for you, two for me ...

I use the herb scissors, they come in either 3 or 5 blades, to chop and blend, as Will suggested above. Blend, blend, blend all those little pieces and your tortoises will not be able to be picky pick them outs.

Growing your own greens is the best thing if you can, of course. Seeds are the best value of them all. If I may also suggest, if your community has a weekly farmer's market, go! Run, don't walk. Best place ever for edible greens. Also, if you make friends with the farmers, you may get an end of the day deal. Some things are thrown away (lettuce pieces, broken kale leaves, wilted squash blossoms)that can be fed to our tortoises as is. Also, community gardens are a great source. Sometimes, same as farmers markets, there is abundance or damage and if not used, ends up in the compost pile. So make friends, and ask if you can be part of the process for your tortoises.

Tortoises can make us better gardeners and eat your veggies eaters.: )

 

[MikeCow1]

I keep trying to grow weeds, like plantain and others. But, the only thing that will grow is dandelions. Luckily, where I live in OC most of the chains like Stater Bros, Sprouts and the like all carry dandelions, arugula, cactus and stuff. So never any shortage. I find the local farmer's markets charge more than the chains.

 

[lkwagner]

I have never seen ANY of those greens. Dandelion? I had no idea anyone would sell that. People pay good money to have dandelion poisoned from their yards.
I def let mine grow.

Thanks for posting, I will scour Asian markets when I'm in the city.

Not sure if you have meijer but the meijers by me all have dandelion.
My dad on the other hand pays a lottt of money to get dandelions and other weeds out of his yard lol

 

[peasinapod]

Dandelion is found throughout the italian kitchen. It is not strange to find dandelion seeds on sale between other veggies like zucchini etc.

 

[StarSapphire22]

My local Cashwise has dandelion kindof hidden in the tippytop corner of the organic section...they're a fairly small chain, upper midwest thing. Nowhere else around here does....just "regular" veggies mostly.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/8zh6xag5huyc78i/cLRJCvGlpm

This is a link to a progression of things that I can get, in addition to those you see in the first post. Then with many more images, you see how I chop it up, and what the end result is. I think even if my tortoises could use tweezers, and had them, they are no going to able to pick out one thing over the other so well. If they refuse all, that's Ok today, tomorrow is another day. Eventually they acquiesce, and eat it all.

The beverage can is in many images for spatial/size comparison. Images are not in an order anymore so than I would actually prepare one thing over another, if I imaged each item in its own sequence of preparation that would double/triple the prep time.

I made a much more complicated mix, for the sake of example in one collection of images. It ended up being about twice the "leafy" volume that I would prepare on any given day.

That double amount does not refer to the supplements. That is the amount I use for half the total leafy volume prepared as seen, until the last two or three images where I have halved the amount. The supplements are 2 to 4 scoops of ZooMed as shown and then 2 to 4 scoops of Purina Laynea Sunfresh crumbles layer food for chickens. Never more than 6 scoops total, it could be 1:5 to 5:1. Once placed in the small sour cream tub I add the Aloe Juice to twice the depth of the dry things, that gets absorbed with no spare liquid. Water is used the same way.

I show dry, then wetted, then scissor cut wetted greens. I show a bunch of mixed fresh grass as well, today I put them both in, it is usually one or the other. My grass garden consists of American millet, lemon, crab, and St. Augustine grass. The image of the growing plants is a few of the grasses and the small hibiscus crop. I still have not tried or used the frozen lemongrass.

All the greens that I use over about a month are in this one salad. The "usual" is about 80% Romaine and the Santa Barbara mix. That bag of six romaine bunches is $2.79, the Santa Barbara mix is $5.99. As the base, that will last about a week for the animals that get the leafy abundance salad. Most everyday the other 20% is Mulberry (not in these images) and hibiscus. All these other things end up being a low %, maybe as a much as 10% when mulberry is still available or 15%+ when the mulberry drops its leaves. IMO this constant/dynamic preparation prevents a fixation on a certain salad or mix of greens.

I rinse all of them, and let them drip off, but don't get crazy with that. The moisture helps the grass bits stick to the leafy bits.

The hatchlings eat it all indiscriminately across the eating area, with the exception that the leos don't seem to like the sesame so much. Adult wild caught pancakes are the least picky of wild caught tortoises I have. Some individuals on one day or another pick out the stem pieces over the leaf pieces, some don't seem to care. When two pancake are eating at the same time, the concern to pick and choose goes away.

In short, to characterize a leafy plant as unacceptable because it came from a grocery stores, is short sighted. If you only have a Quickie Mart for most of your shopping availability, I get it, but then that indicates a more rural home, and the corresponding abundance of space to grow your own food and or harvest weeds. There are no doubt a few "that one place" hundreds of miles from anywhere that is also a barren wasteland of post apocalyptic proportions, I got nothing for you, but mail order herbs and grasses for your iceberg lettuce and grated carrots.

There are the mail order places for salad mixes and supplements designed just for tortoises. In shorter short: Grocery Greens are Good.

If you seek an explanation for an image, shout it out with the sequence number please.

Will

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I keep trying to grow weeds, like plantain and others. But, the only thing that will grow is dandelions. Luckily, where I live in OC most of the chains like Stater Bros, Sprouts and the like all carry dandelions, arugula, cactus and stuff. So never any shortage. I find the local farmer's markets charge more than the chains.

Yeah, there are 'desert' types of plantain, but most are more a riparian environment plant. Will

 

[AnnV]

Wow, Will, THANK YOU for such an informative post (and time consuming, I'm sure!)

 

[thatrebecca]

See, I have never heard of any of those here in Chicago. We do have a lot of ethnic food stores, but they are not on the north side where I live. Sorry, Will, I thought the H-Mart was a misspell or auto correct of some sort.

Hey Barb, where on the north side are you? I used to live in Evanston and would frequently shop at the Asian grocers off the Argyle el stop. It's been a while since I lived there, but I think it's still a primarily Vietnamese neighborhood with grocers that carry a lot of the stuff in the OP. Great Asian bakeries, too, if you're feeling like getting yourself a treat along with your torts.