Spinach (Spinacia oleracea)
by Scott Vlaun

For many of us who live in snow country, one of the great joys of the early spring garden is the first taste of tender baby spinach leaves. After a winter of stored foods and lifeless greens shipped from across the continent, those first meals with living green food provide a welcome nutritional boost, as well as a sure sign that the gardening season is in full swing.

Even if you don't live in a cold climate, chances are that spinach is a seasonal treat because it will readily bolt (go to seed) in hot weather, so in the southern U.S. spinach fares best in the cool of winter. For those in the North, spinach is a spring and fall crop and, with the aid of mulch, coldframes, and tunnels, can be wintered over in a dormant state for the earliest spring growth and harvest. Whenever you can grow it, fresh spinach is one of the most satisfying, nutritious, and easy-to-grow vegetables in the garden.

Culture
Spinach can be direct seeded in garden beds as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring and soil temperatures approach 50°F. Sow seeds about half an inch deep and about one inch apart, in rows about eight inches apart. Sow closer for baby greens and wider for mature plants or to accommodate cultivating between rows. As plants begin to crowd each other, thin the plants and enjoy the tender leaves in salads. To grow full-size plants you'll ultimately want to end up with 6-12 inches between plants, depending on the variety. Thinning gradually as the plants fill in the space helps to shade out emerging weeds and maximize the production of the bed.

Plants can also be started in flats and transplanted to the garden for the earliest harvest or to save space in the fall garden. To assure the longest possible harvest season it is best to sow spinach every two weeks or so. Experience will tell you when the optimal planting times are for your climate. As a guideline, I plant three successions in the spring, up until about two weeks before the last spring frost; I plant three more in the fall, about two weeks before the first fall frost for wintering over.

Seed Saving
Spinach is easy to save seed from and, if saved from your first spring crop, can provide you with all the seeds you'll need for fall planting. Identify 12-20 of your strongest plants and allow them plenty of space to mature. After the plants "bolt" you'll notice the female plants producing seed pods, while the males wither and die. Once the pods turn brown, the seeds are ready to harvest. I like to strip off the pods into a tub then crush them up to separate the seeds from the pods. You can run them through a seed cleaning screen or winnow to clean the seeds from the chaff. While it takes some extra time and garden space to do this, it is rewarding to grow from your own seed and develop a strain specific to your own soil and microclimate.

	Seeds of Change Varieties
	America Spinach (Spinacea oleracea) Introduced in 1952, this variety has endured for its first-rate flavor. Thick, deep-green, savoy-leafed plants grow to a foot in width. It is the slowest to bolt of a dozen varieties tested. Can be spring or fall sown, but does not overwinter well.
	Bloomsdale Spinach (Raphanus bipinnatus) Introduced in 1925, this classic, savoy-leafed spinach has tasty, thick, dark-green leaves. Grows well in spring or fall and can overwinter if protected with mulch. Dependable and cold hardy. Direct seed in early spring, as soon as the soil can be worked, for a spring crop, and in early August for harvest in the late fall.
	Viroflay Spinach (Raphanus bipinnatus) This heirloom is one of the largest and most vigorous varieties we have trialed. Flavorful arrow- to oval-shaped leaves are slightly savoyed. Great variety for fall, overwintering, or spring planting. Extremely vigorous plants bear ten-inch leaves. Early maturing.

Soil and Water
Spinach likes fertile soil with a neutral pH (6-7.5). Generous additions of mature compost, and a side dressing after four weeks with compost tea or other liquid organic fertilizer, help to assure rapid growth which yields the most tender leaves. If your crop is bothered by insect pests, covering with a light row cover should help. Spinach also likes consistently moist but not soggy soil. Mulching between rows or around larger plants helps to conserve moisture, control weeds, and moderate soil temperature to slow bolting.

Harvest and Cooking
Spinach can be harvested in a number of ways. For baby spinach you can harvest by "mowing" the bed with a sharp knife, starting at one end of the bed when leaves are 2-3 inches tall. If you take a little each day, by the time you get to the other end of the bed, the place where you started should have new harvestable growth. I like to harvest baby spinach by thinning out small plants as needed, leaving the largest to mature, and harvesting whole plants. Others like to harvest selected leaves, while letting the plants continue to grow and only taking whole plants just before bolting.

Fresh from the garden, spinach needs very little in the way of cooking, but does need to be washed carefully to remove the grit from the crinkled (savoyed) leaves. Baby spinach is best eaten raw in salads with mild dressing to allow the flavor to shine through. For larger leaves, gently steaming or sautéing until it "falls" and a bright green color shows, is all that's needed. Remember that the volume of raw spinach will reduce by about a factor of ten when cooked (ten cups raw will make one cup cooked).

For the purist, lightly steamed spinach with a little butter or in an omelet with a little cheese is nirvana. To appeal to a more sophisticated palate, try bringing a large skillet with a generous splash of extra virgin olive oil to medium high heat, add some finely chopped garlic and onion, and stir until fragrant (about a minute). Add the carefully washed spinach and a dash of salt. Stir until it wilts, then remove immediately from the heat. Lay a big scoop over a bed of pasta, top with freshly grated parmesan, toasted pine nuts, a grind of pepper, and enjoy.

Varieties
Seeds of Change offers three different varieties, varying in cold hardiness and leaf type. You might want to try all three to see what works best for your microclimate, season, and taste buds. You may find that you like one variety for spring planting and another for fall planting or wintering over.

Photo captions: A spinach bed at the Maine Trial Garden. The front of the bed was planted first and is bolting, while the far end of the bed, planted two weeks later is still in its prime.