Preserving Home-grown Spinach

Spinach is a wonderful vegetable very high in iron and other vitamins and potent minerals. It's no wonder Pop-Aye could perform wonders. The dissimilarity between home-grown spinach and what you find in the store (in any form) is so diverse, you may believe it is a different vegetable! Of course, this is true for almost any garden vegetable, but if you tend to not like spinach, give garden-fresh a try. You will also feel more confident about the health benefits since you can control your home garden environment; sadly, you cannot guarantee that market spinach is free of harmful e-coli.

Spinach is a cool-weather crop that likes temperatures ranging from a low of 40 to a high of 70. Frost will usually not hurt spinach, but a blanket of snow will. You can usually plant spinach seeds about four weeks before the last frost in your area. Check with your local extension agency for the best planting time for your region. Weather that is too hot will cause spinach to bolt and produce seed which ruins the sweet flavor and makes the leaves and stems tough.

Spinach likes well-worked soil that is not overly rich. Plant in raised beds if your soil tends to be soggy; raised beds also warm up faster, but they dry out more easily. If your springs tend to be droughty, you should plan to supplement water from the hose or a sprinkler. Plant spinach seeds 6 in. apart and 1/4 in. deep. Barely covered is fine. Plant two seeds at a time in the same place; later, if both sprout, you can pull one and leave the healthiest plant. Water well after you plant, keep moist, and wait up to two weeks for seedlings to sprout, depending on your weather. Rabbits love to nibble on young spinach plants, so take measures to protect your rows: floating row covers spun from lightweight fabric work well (available from garden-order catalogs) as do some repellant sprays. Keep your spinach watered, and when your plants have the first two true leaves, add a general-purpose nitrogen fertilizer at the recommended amount and work it into the soil. Keep your rows weed-free with a hand-cultivator.

Begin harvesting when the plants have several good-sized leaves. Using a pair of kitchen scissors, snip the outer leaves first, allowing the center of the plant to continue growing. Cool weather can prolong your harvest over four weeks or more. Just before hot weather arrives, cut the whole plant at the base just above ground level. Harvest spinach just before you plan to clean and cook it if possible. Place snipped leaves in a bucket of cold water to keep them fresh; later, you can use your hands like a plunger to stir the leaves in the water: this helps loosen dirt and makes fine cleaning easier.

Whenever you have more spinach than you can eat fresh, consider preserving it for later use. Canning and freezing are the most popular methods, but freezing is best in my opinion; in both cases, spinach must be cooked.

Fill a kitchen sink with cold water and lift a handful of spinach from your bucket into the sink (you will see leftover dirt and sand in the bucket, which you can dump outside). Rinse each leaf under running water and rub with thumb and fingers to ensure removal of all grit (and insects, but don't be grossed out; insects are a normal part of the gardening process). Take special care to remove any tiny white fuzz spots on the underside of leaves - these are insect nests.

Spinach cooks down in volume significantly and quickly. Fill the tallest kettle you can find with half an inch of water and bring to a boil. Quickly chuck your cleaned leaves into the kettle and immediately cover. It will not take long for a full pot of spinach to reduce to just a couple of inches. Stir often. Remove kettle from heat after about five minutes and pour the contents into a colander or strainer. Try to get as much juice out as possible.

Prepare plastic ziplock bags specifically sold as "freezer bags" by writing "Spinach, [date]" on the white label with a permanent pen or marker. Spoon only enough spinach in each bag as your family will eat in one setting. I like to freeze approximately 10 ounces per bag. Squeeze out ALL air, flatten, seal, and place in your freezer.

Later, perhaps when the weather outside is too hot, but you crave garden greens, thaw a package from your freezer and cook as desired. My favorite dish combines spinach, butter, cream, and a dash of nutmeg over pasta, and topped with fresh parmesan.