The First Official Harvest

I’ve never grown spinach before, so I wasn’t sure how big to let it get before picking it.  I knew I could pick it as baby spinach, but hey, why not let it get larger? We have no problems with full size spinach.  Apparently, it grows quickly, because I was out by my pot of spinach when I spied a blossom forming! Ack! Time to pick before they bolt and get bitter.  So we had our first salad of spinach out of the garden.  The kids were beyond excited, and we all really enjoyed the spinach leaves that we grew ourselves.  I made a simple salad with hard boiled eggs, cucumber slices and tomato, because we really wanted that spinach to shine, and oh, did it ever.

To accompany, we also munched on a few of these morsels.  I really, really like this variety of radish.  It’s sweet and very crunchy- called a Pink Beauty, they are a very pretty shade of pink and I think they may become our radish of choice.  I also have an icicle radish growing, but those aren’t doing as well, and they have a bite that only Andy enjoys eating.  Maybe as they grow a little more they’ll get a little milder.  But I think for now, these Pink Beauty’s are the ticket.  Andy also managed to fill my third garden bed this weekend, so I’m very excited to get that amended and planted this week.  We’ll definitely need some more spinach, so it’s the perfect time to get another crop going I think.  In case anyone is interested, I’m growing Bloomsdale Long Standing, which is supposed to be more heat-tolerant and bolt resistant.  One thing is certain- they like the rain we’ve been having.

This morning upon inspection, I see that the spinach actually IN the garden could stand to have some leaves picked, so it’s going to be a spinach filled week.  As I was cleaning spinach the other day, I was simply imagining dropping some of the leaves into a curry, so I think I may be making a curry for dinner tonight.  It’s going to be a great vegetable filled week here, so I hope you’ll stick around.  Happy Monday everyone! It’s a fantastic day!