Bye Bye Spinach
Let me offer a little piece of advice: if your spinach looks like this, don’t eat it! Spinach likes its days short, its soil moist, and its temperatures cool. So, at this time of year when our days are long, and warm, and dry, spinach tends to go to seed, or bolt as the process is sometimes called. This is bad news for you because bolted spinach tastes very bitter and develops a tough, unpleasant texture. Trust me on this. I took a little nibble of my bolted spinach this morning, and let’s just say I did not pick more leaves for breakfast.
The development of pointy, arrow shaped leaves is the first sign that your spinach will soon bolt. As soon as you see the merest hint of a pointy leaf, harvest all your spinach before it has a chance to turn bitter on you. If, like me, you weren’t paying attention and your spinach shot skyward before you noticed, it’s best to just pull the plants and throw them on your compost pile because the leaves are inedible at this point.
I’m going to take out my bolted spinach today and sow dino kale in its place. Beets or Swiss chard would be a good bet, too, becuase they grow quickly and stay tender and tasty even in the heat.
Thanks so much for this post! I’m growing spinach for the first time this year (along with pretty much everything…I’m a total n00b to gardening) and I’m definitely going to be keeping my eye on it now!
June 16th, 2009 at 9:31 amYup, mine bolted this week so I pulled it all up and tossed it to the hens. They loved it!
June 16th, 2009 at 3:35 pmI didn’t get a chance to plant spinach this year, but thanks for the tip! It got me thinking, though, as I was looking at your photos…. what does the rest of your garden look like this time of year? I live North of SF and I’m always curious to see how far along veggies are in other parts of the country.
June 16th, 2009 at 6:02 pmSo, that’s what growing in my bed! I sure didn’t recognize the plant as spinach anymore. Thank you!!
June 16th, 2009 at 7:58 pmmy spinach only grew leggy stems and super tiny leaves this year, it’s been 50-65 on average in chicago, and pretty overcast….what happened?
June 17th, 2009 at 8:41 amConnie–Congrats on your first garden. When your spinach is done, try beets. They are a great beginner crop because you can harvest them at any time and eat the greens.
Marna–Good idea! I should have fed my bolted spinach to my girls. Next time…
Elizabeth–I just took some pics of my garden this morning. I’ll post them soon. I’ve been having a big problem with birds eating everything! So my garden isn’t quite as lush as I had hoped.
Lynne–Glad I could help!
Courtney–It sounds like your spinach may not have gotten enough sun. It needs at least 6 hours of bright, direct sun each day to thrive.
June 17th, 2009 at 10:53 pmHey Willi! That’s a shame you lost all that spinach :-\ I hope you managed to get plenty of good meals out of it before it bolted. Your post served as a good warning though, and we went right out and harvested all of ours because we were starting to get pointy leaves. After picking off all the leaves, we ended up with three 9-oz bags which we “blanched” real quick in the microwave and then stuck in the freezer. Have you ever preserved spinach, and if so, how do you do it? I also know you’re a big fan of kale, and we’ve got a bunch that’s getting ready to be harvested. Do you know if kale is any good after it’s been frozen?
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:29 pmAmanda–I did get quite a harvest before the spinach bolted, but I was definitely bummed that it went to seed so quickly. It seemed fine one day and then it was gone the next. I have never actually frozen spinach because it’s Jon’s favorite green so we always end up gobbling it all up fresh.
Kale actually lasts really well in the garden, even in the heat of the summer. So I just harvest it as needed. I’m sure it would freeze fine if you sliced it into ribbons and cooked it first. I love the National Center for Home Food Preservation Website. It’s full of good info, here’s a link to their advice for freezing greens (I’d cook kale like collards, as they both have thicker leaves):
June 24th, 2009 at 11:10 amhttp://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/freeze/greens.html
can you not boil the old leaves and the stalks to make vegetable soup or stock?
July 6th, 2009 at 11:56 pm