Malabar Spinach

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Does anyone know where I might find some malabar spinach? I have heard about and read about it and it seems it would be good spinach to have here in Tejas, but I haven't found any seeds around here at all. Thanks very much!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), November 03, 2001

Answers

Pinetree Garden Seeds carries smaller size seed packets which are good for trying out new veggies. They sell a minimum of 50 seeds of Malabar spinach for 65 cents. Their shipping is very reasonable, too - $1.50 regardless of how many packets you order. I know I've seen Malabar spinach in the bigger catalogs but will have to WADE through them to find it. Let me know if you need that info and I'll find it for you.

-- Bren (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), November 03, 2001.

Pine tree and I think Johnny's also has them. I have an unopened packet around here somewhere....

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), November 03, 2001.

Thanks! I knew I could count on you all. I remember seeing it in a long lost seed catalog, but there aren't exactly a bunch of places around here that sell out of the ordinary produce. If I can find some soon I will try it out.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), November 03, 2001.

Doreen, if you haven't tried them, you'd be surprised how much better beet greens taste than spinach. I can grow spinach easily here in the fall and I used to grow several 300' long rows each winter. But after I tasted beet greens, I haven't even bothered with spinach. Beet greens taste just like spinach, except like the difference between spinach in its resurrection body and just plain old everyday here in the old sinful world spinach. Now I'm talking about boiled, I don't mean raw. For salad use, spinach is better. The beets can be plain old co op Detroit Dark Red variety that you can get anywhere, even there.

If you've never tried them, give beet greens a try: you'll be amazed.

-- Rags (RaggedReb@aol.com), November 04, 2001.


Rags, I have never tried them....what do I do with the rest of the beet? I hate beets. I know they are supposed to be very good for you, but I find them disgusting. Maybe I should try them again as it has been a few years and the taste buds seem to change from time to time.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), November 05, 2001.


Feed em to your goats, chickens, or rabbits. Or you can even leave them in the ground for organic material. Or you could give them to someone who likes them. Or you can make red dye out of them.

But, I admit, you ARE at a disadvantage not having any of that most wonderful of livestock--HOGS--for consumption of excess and unwanted vegetables.

-- Rags (RaggedRe@aol.com), November 05, 2001.


I agree with Rags about the beet greens........wonderful. I like them especially when they are very young and have just a tiny little beet on the end of them. Try them with a bit of butter and vinegar Doreen. You might be surprised. I thought for years that I didn't like beets but I was only eating big old ones or ones from the store. When I started harvesting my own baby ones was I ever surprised!!!

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 05, 2001.

Doreen,

Burpee (shocker) does sell malabar spinach vine. I don't know where you are in Texas, but here in Austin they sell little pots of it in the spring. It grows like mad here and produces well.

Beet greens are delicious. If you'd like to grow the greens without worrying about the beet, then just grow Swiss chard. It's the same species, grows the same delicious leaves, just not the root.

Also remember that beets are a cool-season crop which does not grow well in our Texas heat.

-- Brian (bdwilliams1@hotmail.com), December 05, 2001.


Ive bought it from Pinetree. Got a pile of seeds and just about every seed sprouted. The plants grew like weeds. It tasted so vile that even the geese wouldnt eat it. The others are right, you cant beat a beet.

-- William in WI (gnarledmaw@lycos.com), December 07, 2001.

Oh yeah....

My wife and pa hate beets and Im always buried in beet thinnings, yknow, with the marble sized beet nubbin on the end. I couldnt figure out how to get anyone to eat the beet part, and just plain buttered greens werent going over too well with the rest of the family.

One day I felt like german potato salad, I fried the bacon and got the sauce going and then realized, not enough potatos. There was a pile of thinnings on the counter. I got to thinking that I liked spinach salads with hot bacon dressing and so did everyone else in the house. I chopped the thinnings into 3 pieces: root with stem stubbles, mid stems, leaf ends. I put the root end in the hot potato salad dressing and covered for about a minute, stirred it up and added the stems then covered again and finally about 45 sec to a minute later I stirred the leaves in too.

Thats how I invented(well at least my version) german beet salad. Everyone in my family likes it, even the beet ends, including a friend who "doesnt do that vegetable thing".

-- William in WI (gnarledmaw@lycos.com), December 07, 2001.



hi --- i found malabar spinach offered by parks seeds greenwood sc. am very interested in trying to grow some here in florida. good luck LA

-- larryarbour (larryarbour@yahoo.com), January 31, 2003.

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