Tips for growing Spinach

Until I'd met Spinach Lasagne, Spanakopitta, and all sorts of Middle Eastern dishes, spinach was a vegetable in a tin left by a previous tenant; and there it stayed - I wonder how long it took to find a student so poverty stricken that they actually used it?

Treated with respect, it is a royal vegetable.   It is a fussier plant to grow than the leaf beets/Chards - if its growth is checked at all, it throws a hissy fit and goes to seed!

New Zealand Spinach (I've seen it also called Perennial and Perpetual Spinach) is a different plant altogether.   It is more tolerant of hot and dry conditions than true spinach, and is grown in the same way as the leaf beets/Chards.

• True Spinach needs good soil, well manured the previous autumn.   Summer spinach needs dappled shade - in the shadow of a tree, or between rows of tall vegetables; winter spinach needs sunny beds.
• For summer varieties, sow mid-March to the end of May in shallow drills, 12 inches apart.   Sow them thinly and cover with soil.
• For winter and early spring cropping, sow July/August outside, or September/October under cover.
• Thin the seedlings out early to single plants about 3 inches apart, and thin again later - a bit like beetroot, when the thinnings are big enough to use in the kitchen.
• They will need lots of water during dry spells.   They are almost entirely trouble free - IF the soil is rich enough, and there is enough water.   Any lack, and the plant will panic and bolt!
• When the outer leaves are large enough to use, pick them carefully and regularly.   Don't let them get too big or tough to use, and leave the central newest leaves to develop.   Pick continually to encourage fresh growth.   You can pick up to half of a summer spinach plant, much less of the winter spinach.
• Sow for summer and winter, pick regularly, and you can have spinach almost all the year round.

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Using Spinach

• The British way - wash them lightly but thoroughly in cold water, cut out the central rib if necessary, and tear into pieces.   Pop the leaves into a pan, and allow them to steam for 5-10 minutes - add a knob of butter, and a grating of pepper and/or nutmeg, a bit of salt.   Go on, eat the gloop - it's what made Popeye the man he was!
• OR get yourself to the nearest bookshop.   Browse the Middle Eastern, Greek, or Italian recipes; don't buy a coffee-table book - because you will be using it again and again!   Or look for Indian recipes which use "methi" leaves (fenugreek, I believe) - also well worth trying.

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