Spinach Fright

I think some of the spinach is ready. And I'm not quite sure what to do about it. Last week I thinned the spinach, and had one awesome salad to show for it. But the thought of tackling an actual harvest, this I'm not so sure about.


My fears began as I noticed that some of the plants have pretty good sized leaves. I don't even know if spinach is a once and done harvest, or some kind of Energizer Bunny crop that just keeps on going and going...

So I decided that I'd become a Google Expert on Spinach harvesting. Since the majority of my knowledge of anything comes from Google, (sorry Mom and Dad, that $$$ college degree is not as useful) I thought I'd feel better after reading a few instructional sites. Here's what I came up with:

1. I can cut some leaves off in hopes that the plant will grow more, some do.
2. I can cut the whole plant off an inch or so above the ground in hopes that it will regrow a whole plant, or
3. I can pull the whole thing out by the roots, as I did while thinning.

So basically I know as much now after half an hour on Google as I did an hour before I started. While I could have watched an instructional spinach harvesting video on YouTube.com, I felt like that might have been a bit crazy. Or would it be, since I am now cowering at the sight of my partially or perhaps fully mature spinach plants. Why were there not more pictures?

This evening, with my fingers crossed, I will enter the spinach bed, shearers or fingernails in hand (both weapons recommended for harvesting), hold my breath and cut. I suppose I'll start with the two biggest plants, snipping a few outside leaves on one, and giving the other a pretty good hair cut. Then we will see what happens.

My other dilemma is this: This garden, in which I have begun the planting of a basically apocalyptic amount of vegetables is supposed to provide my family with summer produce, as well as plenty of leftovers to freeze or can for the winter. But if I don't have a pound of spinach leaves ready at a time, as the book clearly states I need, how am I supposed to freeze it? And how in world am I supposed to get all those leaves to stay on my kitchen scale to even know when it's a pound? My husband suggested the bathroom scale, but I'm not so into spinach that tastes like feet...

Wish me luck.