Kitchen Garden

SEA SPINACH

I have often admired the glossy, dark green leaves of wild sea spinach when walking along a cliff path or on the shore above the tide line. But I am always reluctant to pick and eat it, as the spinach is also admired and sprayed by passing dogs.

Earlier this year, however, I bought a packet of sea-spinach seeds (from Pennard Plants of Somerset) and am having some success. They will grow perfectly well inland on well-drained soil – we are on greensand here – and prefer a site without any shade. This perennial plant, also called sea beet, is the ancestor not only of all our cultivated beetroots but of leaf beet, seakale beet, Swiss chard and garden spinach.

In a previous column I commented on the difficulty I have had with growing ordinary spinach: it requires a lot of

watering, tends to run to seed in summer and is prone to a fungal disease called downy mildew. When cooked, a large handful of leaves will reduce to little more than a spoonful.

Sea spinach, on the other hand, has none of these disadvantages. The plants I have grown this summer have not needed watering, they are thriving now and, as a hardy perennial, they should keep producing next year.

I have paid them little attention except to cut off the seed heads when they appeared. Most importantly, the leaves do not shrivel up when steamed nor lose any of their flavour, which is undoubtedly superior to that of garden spinach.

New Zealand spinach is another vigorous variety, similar in appearance to sea spinach. It is a low-growing annual which was introduced to this country by the great botanist Sir Joseph Banks, who was with Captain Cook on his voyage to Australasia in the 18th century. His sailors were given this spinach to ward off scurvy.

It will tolerate hot, dry conditions without bolting, and though the plants will flower, the yield is not affected. The seed is usually sown in spring but, if it’s sown now and given the protection of a greenhouse, the plants should crop through the winter.