Spinach, épinards or espinacas in
Spanish: a lovely word to pronounce!
Whatever the language, it is not to
everyone’s taste. It’s a milder version of sorrel
and a stronger version of swiss chard. Spinach
can be bitter, but blobs of butter will better it.
As for the growing side of things, it has
to be said that spinach does (like sorrel) go to
seed early if it becomes too hot and dry.
Depending on your climate you may need to
plant it in the shade and water regularly.
Don’t despair should you live down
in the south – plant winter
spinach instead
(see below).
In this country
there are basically
two planting times
of the year, but
this is by no
means a hard and
fast rule. France is
large, and there are
many different
climes.
The main times to
sow and grow are either
now (mid-August to mid-
September) to eat from October to
December, or from mid-September
until the end of October to eat in
March and April.
Sow in firm ground dressed with a bit of
dried cow manure. Sow in lines 25-30cm apart
and then thin out later to keep about 15 plants
to a metre (no, you don’t need a calculator).
Water religiously (especially the summerplanted
ones). This way they will keep tender,
not too bitter, and won’t go to seed.
Strong to the finish
Although rich in iron, spinach doesn’t have
quite the Popeye effect you might expect. A
typing error, one wrong decimal place, was
responsible for millions of people being
informed of its terrific iron content.
Spinach is full of folic acid and plenty of
other goodies (not counting calcium which
won’t fix because of the oxalic acid). Cooking
destroys a lot of the vitamins and minerals.
For those of you who are worried about
vitamin loss by cooking, I suggest you pick
out the tender middle leaves, which can be
added to salads. But consuming it raw can be
a somewhat bulky experience. This bulk
reduces to an amazing extent in cooking; the
general rule being, if catering for two, pick or
buy for a dozen.
Here’s a quick and easy recipe:
Wash spinach. Put it in a big pan with lots
of butter and perhaps a little oil, just enough
to prevent the butter from
burning. A lot of water will
swim its way along with
the leaves, but try not to
allow too much of
these watery
ablutions to join the
pot. Stir and cook.
Cook and stir. It
won’t take long for
everything to reduce
to an eighth. Place in
buttered tray/dish,
add some fresh or
tinned oily fish, cook
for a while, and finally
add raw eggs with red
Espelette or other pepper
and pop back into the oven
until the eggs are done to
your satisfaction.
Buzzing off
Ensure that you have some mozzy bite
remedies, bearing in mind that guests from the
UK are less immune than we are and therefore
more vulnerable. You may have read, as I
have, that taking brewers’ yeast combined
with vitamin B12 will keep these beasties at
bay. However, it appears that an overdose of
B12 is not good for you and is usually only
recommended for those deficient in it. Thus, I
would advise the more traditional methods
such as lemon verbena, citronella and basil
(you need a lot of basil for it to work) even
though their effect is limited.
Various potions and many electrical and
other contraptions are on the market.
A vous de choisir.
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