Thursday, January 14, 2021

Growing a New Variety - Galilee Spinach

I remember watching "Popeye the Sailorman" cartoons growing up.  Things would go bad and then Popeye would get mad, grab a can of spinach, squeeze the can, causing the spinach to go into the air then down into his pipe.  He would immediately grow huge muscles and take care of whatever business he needed to take care of.

Moms everywhere used this as an enticement to make you "eat your vegetables."  Mine did.  "Eat some spinach and you'll grow muscles like Popeye's."  Except eating spinach from a can was not good (to me).  At all.  Not to mention, if I managed to force down a forkful of spinach, my muscles did not grow.  There was really no incentive at all to eat spinach.  EXCEPT...

As an adult gardener, I tried it again.  And I liked it!!  I've tried growing several varieties and I've settled on one that we really like.  It is an heirloom called Galilee Spinach.  It is from Israel.  It is suited for warmer climates.  It grows well in our area.  The leaves are pointed.  They are lush and grow quickly.

A few weeks ago we picked a bunch and made a Cream of Spinach Soup.  Spinach is great just raw in salads, too.

We tried some sautéed in butter.  While not the most aesthetic-looking dish, it was certainly delicious.

I see that we have a few beginning to put some seed heads on.  I'll try to save the seeds off of some of these for next year's crop.  Popeye would be proud of me!

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