Harvesting “Popeye”

Somehow, I don’t know how, but somehow during the cool, wet weather my spinach grew a foot and went to seed.  Because of the timing of it going seed and the weather conditions, it had to wait to be dealt with.  This wasn’t a big deal as after spinach goes to seed it’s still fine to eat; some say it gets bitter but I can’t really tell the difference.  I find it interesting though how the leaves change shape after it goes to seed.



Spinach gone to seed



I’m not a huge spinach fan, I prefer swiss chard, that being said, I do still grow it.  We prefer to eat our spinach cooked and use it in dips and spreads.  Our preferred method is to lightly steam it and serve it as a side dish at dinner.  (We top with a blob of butter and Steve seasons it with pepper.)

Although many people enjoy spinach salad I’ve never been a fan of it; I was never fond of the taste or texture of raw spinach.  People rant and rave about the health benefits of spinach and how you loss all the nutrients when it’s cooked – I say “PLLLBBBB” to that. (That was me sticking my tongue out.)  Spinach lightly cooked still has lots of nutrients and in my opinion is safer to eat than raw spinach – remember the many salmonella outbreaks from people eating raw spinach?

 In fact, did you know that raw spinach is hard to digest and that the nutrients are more easily absorbed if it’s cooked? Also, did you know that many of the nutrients that make a salad healthy are fat soluble, meaning that they must be eaten with some kind of fat in order to be absorbed?  So either add that Ranch Dressing to your spinach salad or cook it!

Now, I understand that some people cook the crap out of their food leaving it completing depleted of anything good, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  If you boil your spinach for 20 minutes there won’t be much good left in it; but if you steam or sauté it until just wilted, you are not going to deplete it of many nutrients and then it’ll be easier on your tummy.

Since we don’t enjoy raw spinach when it’s past its prime we harvest the entire crop.  Last Sunday I spent time in the garden picking the remaining spinach so that it could be cleaned, blanched and frozen.   After a bit of work I can now say that I have my spinach blanched and in the freezer.  (I had originally included the fine art of blanching here but decided to post it separately.)

I don’t seem to have good luck with my spinach re-growing so after we get one crop we pull the plants and are done with it.  This year because of the cooler temperatures I’ve attempted a second planting – hopefully it won’t bolt as soon as it’s up and we’ll get a second crop for the freezer.