Almost time to plant spinach
Eyepop spent his grownup life as a sailor, but the time came for him to trade in the seven seas to be a spinach farmer. Every day, from start to finish, Eyepop grew spinach.
He was attracted to spinach farming because of the surprising energetic boost he would get from eating a large glop of it. He learned over time spinach was a powerhouse of more than a dozen antioxidant and anticancer substances, plus vitamin K for healthy heart activity and bone metabolism.
Famous researchers he met in Europe had pointed out that spinach cushions the brain from negative aging influences including those which contribute to Alzheimers’s disease. Also, a cute Spanish dietician from Valencia told him over strong coffee about all the folic acid, manganese, magnesium and a boatload of other nutrients contained in a helping of spinach. Eyepop was sold when he heard the word “folic.”
Spain produces almost 87,000 tons of spinach annually which is 16 percent of the European Union total of 555.4 tons annually. According to folks who like to count things, the world total for spinach production is about 20 million tons per year with China, the United States and Japan leading the way. That’s a hefty heap of spinach leaves which probably does not include the modest amount I grow.
Like Eyepop, spinach has traveled the world. Supposedly, in the land now called Iran, an edible wild plant was domesticated into an early version of spinach, and it was circulated eastward into India, and from Nepal into China where it was named “Persian Green.” Spinach also spread west into northern Africa, and it was the Moors who introduced it to Spain. By the Middle Ages, it was cultivated everywhere in Europe. English folks at the time called it the “Spanish vegetable.”
Catherine de Medici, mother of three kings (it’s complicated) and wife of Henry II of France in the middle of the 16th century, declared spinach her favorite vegetable, and brought her own cooks with her when she moved to France so she could have it prepared how she liked. Legend holds that she gets credit for the term “a la Florentine” for dishes served on a bed of spinach.
So Eyepop and his team grow the three basic types of spinach plus a couple spinach-like alternatives. Savoy spinach is a productive, curled-leaf type that handles cold weather better than other types. The most famous variety is Bloomsdale Longstanding, developed in the United States in the early 19th century. Leaves of semi-savoy types are less bumpy than savoy, which makes it easier to rinse off the dirt and grit. Tyee is a semi-savoy variety which can be grown year-round in mild-winter areas.
Smooth-leaved spinach types have – you guessed it – smooth leaves. However, varieties within the three types vary in hot weather tolerance which determines how quickly they bolt, or send up a central stem to produce flowers and seeds. Semi-savoy types such as Tyee and Catalina are more bolt-resistant. Of the smooth-leaf types, Space is slow to bolt, but Red Carnival bolts quickly, so must be harvested early.
Two varieties from Down Under, though both semi-savoy, are different. Kookaburra produces mature leaves in 25 days and is not so quick to bolt. However, Tasman does not mature as quickly but is quick to bolt so it must be picked before maturity.
Also, some varieties such as Amsterdam Prickly Seeded have pointy leaves, but Bokoboko, a west African variety from Ghana, has rounder, smooth leaves and is heat resistant.
New Zealand spinach and Malabar spinach are not in the spinach family but are excellent alternatives. Both handle heat well and will produce all summer. New Zealand is a low-growing leafy vegetable and Malabar is a very productive climbing vine that might reach beyond your trellis.
Plant spinach seeds early in the season and again in late summer. When asked how to plant spinach seeds, Eyepop replied, “Put seeds in the dirt,” then he shrugged and nodded. Enough said.