Spinach Perpetual

The variety that solves the central problem of growing spinach in Britain. True spinach bolts at the first hot spell, giving a few weeks of leaves before it runs to seed. Perpetual Spinach — a leaf beet rather than a true spinach, though used identically — simply does not.

One April sowing crops from June through autumn, stands the winter unprotected in most of England, and gives a final flush the following March. Twelve months of picking from a single row.

The leaves are larger and sturdier than true spinach, with thicker midribs, and they hold their structure in the pan rather than collapsing to almost nothing. A colander of them wilts down to a useful portion, which is more than can be said for the real thing.