Abundant Spinach

The farm stand is open tomorrow (Saturday April 27,2024) from noon till 5 pm.
In August and early September I plant lots of spinach. I spread this out over about 4-5 plantings. We harvest spinach off of those plantings as needed throughout October and November. It is hard to get the timing on the late spinach just right because if it is a little warmer or cooler in the fall months it speeds up or slows down the growth. This is the same spinach that I attempt to overwinter. I am overwintering this spinach with no extra protection. Some years it works better than others however there are details that we can manage. The first one is site selection. It must be on a well drained site that is not prone to form sheet ice in the winter. Sheet ice is sure to winter kill it. An area that the snow drifts into is better than a windswept knoll. It needs to go into winter with enough root strength that it is strong but also just the right amount of youngness. If a planting is old enough to get a second cutting in the fall it almost always dies out. The only way I know to get this timing right is to do plantings about 7 days apart. One never knows if this one or that is the best. This year we hit it right. I have about 3,000 feet of row that is as pretty as can be. We have abundance of spinach to harvest in the next 4-5 weeks. The overwintered spinach bolts quickly when the weather gets hot so it usually only lasts till sometime in late May. The spring seeded spinach will not be ready till sometime in June so there is almost always a gap in availability after the over wintered spinach is gone by and before the spring seeded crop is ready. The last detail I wish to mention is that it tastes really mild and good right now. We have been testing it on our table. Delicious. Eat with the seasons. Eat lots of what is ready. The seasons rush on quickly and by the time one is tired of this it is time to eat the next new thing. Summer hours will start soon. The trigger for that is the beginning of asparagus harvest in early May. Daniel