Thursday, May 03, 2012

Spinach

I won't be harvesting spinach much longer.  Once the weather heats up, spinach bolts and goes to seed.  
I cut it and put it into a bucket.  Then I go to the hydrant and fill the bucket with water, lift the spinach out of the water into the other bucket, cover with water... repeating the process until the water is clean when I lift the spinach out.  
My mother must not have liked spinach, because I don't recall her ever raising it in her gardens, nor Grandma either, for that matter.  They often grew mustard greens, but never spinach.  Mother never bought it in the store and cooked it, either.  I was probably in my thirties before I finally tasted spinach.  Cliff and I both love it, and have it often as a side dish.  
Speaking of my mother's gardens, she raised some crops that seemed quite adventurous to me.  Popcorn, celery, peanuts, parsnips... things not everybody bothered with.  My parents' gardens were a team effort, actually.  Daddy enjoyed the plowing and tilling and planting.  Both of them picked the beans and tomatoes and other vegetables, and Mother canned and pickled and made sure nothing went to waste.  


I heard wild turkeys gobbling in the distance all the time I was harvesting my spinach.  
I finally have some female hummingbirds.  Once they raise some babies, I'll be going through lots of sugar trying to keep up with them all.  I haven't been putting much in the feeders so far, because the nectar spoils in four days or so, and then I just have to pour it out, clean the feeders, and put fresh stuff in.  Every time I'm at Walmart and see red hummingbird nectar for sale at a ridiculous price, I just wonder who is silly enough to buy it.  I put eight cups of water in a jug, add two cups of sugar, stir until the sugar is dissolved, and put it in the refrigerator.  As long as I keep it fresh, the birds have never turned it down.      

5 comments:

  1. They like that nectar cold right out of the fridge too, at least they do here. I agree why would anyone buy that stuff when it is so easy to make.

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  2. I love raw spinach--but not cooked. EWWW!

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  3. LOVE spinach. COOKED. RAW. LOVE it. Your mother's garden sounded interesting, indeed. I'm one of those suckers (when I was much younger and starting out) who bought the nectar from the store until someone told me otherwise. LOL Take care.PS) I'm behind in my commenting and may continue to be for a while. LOTS going on here I can't talk about online.

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  4. Donna, do you boil the water and sugar together or just mix it at room temperature? My local bird store told me to boil it first, but I wonder if that is really necessary. I'm all about cutting steps. :)

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  5. I do not boil the water. I use warm tap water, warm enough to help the sugar dissolve better. Nobody told me it was OK not to boil it, but I got lazy and decided to try it.

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