Grow Your Own Beet Spinach

Lesson 4: Harvesting Beet Spinach

Gorgeous Greens
Bagged spinach costs a pretty penny in the supermarket. But, in just a few weeks' time, you'll be scoffing platefuls of delicious beet spinach fresh from your garden – and all for next to nothing. Perpetual spinach leaves are normally big enough to harvest by the time the plant has been in the earth for three months. These last few weeks before the harvesting begins are important. Weed carefully, without disturbing the crop. Make sure you have a slug defence strategy in place (see earlier lessons). And don't forget to keep up a generous watering regime: your greens will be much healthier and juicier as a result.

Picking Tips
Pick the outer leaves before they reach their full size. Younger leaves taste better and picking them encourages further growth. Even if you can't use the spinach in your own kitchen, pick it nevertheless. Give it away to your mates or simply chuck it on the compost heap: saddling the plant with overgrown leaves will inhibit its growth. When harvesting beet spinach leaves, pick as close to the ground as possible and take care not to disturb the plant's roots. Leave the centre foliage intact: the outer leaves of this section will become your next harvest "targets".

Fresh is Best
Beet spinach is an excellent substitute for true spinach but its leaves are stronger in taste than its more delicate namesake. Younger leaves have a gentler flavour – another reason why it makes sense to pick the leaves while they're still slightly immature. This crop does not keep well. Ideally, you should eat what you've picked on the same day. If you're obliged to keep beet spinach, wash the leaves and put them in a polythene food bag. They will keep for a couple of days in the fridge.

Pic: GAP Photos/Juliette Wade