Taking the Crop.—"When the leaves are two or three inches broad, they will be fit for gathering. This is done either by cutting them up with a knife wholly to the bottom, drawing and clearing them out by the root, or only cropping the large outer leaves; the root and heart remaining to shoot out again. Either method can be adopted, according to the season or other circumstances."—Rogers.
To raise Seed.—Spinach seeds abundantly; and a few of the fertile plants, with one or two of the infertile, will yield all that will be required for a garden of ordinary size. Seeds of the winter sorts should be saved from autumn sowings, and from plants that have survived the winter.
Use.—The leaves and young stems are the only parts of the plant used. They are often boiled and served alone; and sometimes, with the addition of sorrel-leaves, are used in soups, and eaten with almost every description of meat. "The expressed juice is often employed by cooks and confectioners for giving a green color to made dishes. When eaten freely, it is mildly laxative, diuretic, and cooling. Of itself, it affords little nourishment. It should be boiled without the addition of water, beyond what hangs to the leaves in rinsing them; and, when cooked, the moisture which naturally comes from the leaves should be pressed out before being sent to the table. The young leaves were at one period used as a salad."—M'Int.
Flanders Spinach. Trans.
This is a winter Spinach, and is considered superior to the Prickly or Common Winter Spinach, which is in general cultivation during the winter season in our gardens. It is equally hardy, perhaps hardier.
The leaves are doubly hastate or halberd shaped, and somewhat wrinkled: the lower ones measure from twelve to fourteen inches in length, and from six to eight in breadth. They are not only larger, but thicker and more succulent, than those of the Prickly Spinach. The whole plant grows more bushy, and produces a greater number of leaves from each root; and it is sometimes later in running to seed. The seeds are like those of the Round or Summer Spinach, but larger: they are destitute of the prickles which distinguish the seeds of the Common Winter Spinach.
For winter use, sow at the time directed for sowing the Large Prickly-seeded, but allow more space between the rows than for that variety; subsequent culture, and treatment during the winter, the same as the Prickly-seeded.
Large Prickly-Seeded Spinach.
Large Winter Spinach. Epinard d'Angleterre. Vil.