How can I get baby spinach leaves?

[Kittikity]

When I grew spinach, the leaves were a lot bigger and a bit thicker than the ones you can get at the grocery store.. Do I just have the wrong variety? Or do I need to start harvesting sooner?

[Sinfonian]

Baby spinach is picked early, way early. Thus, I don't wat baby spinach from the garden. It still tastes good big and thick. /shrug

[kitsapFG]

You need to harvest much earlier. Baby spinach is just that ... young leaves. They are much better for fresh eating than large mature leaves and if you harvest often and young - the plant will give you greater harvests before ultimately bolting to seed. I posted a blog entry around the end of May on harvesting spinach with lots of pics that might prove helpful to you.

http://www.modernvictorygarden.com/apps/blog/show/1056202-first-preserving-effort-for-2009

[Kittikity]

Thanks Sinfonian.. My husband had the only spinach salad I managed to get out of my failed garden last fall.. He said it tasted fine.. I just personally like the more tender baby leaves..

Great post kitsap.. Thanks so much for th info.. I never knew you could freeze spinach like that.. Something you didn't mention is what you do with the spinach after its frozen.. Yes, eat it, of course.. But do you eat it by itself or use it in recipes? I've had canned spinach from the store.. Does it taste anything like that?

I don't think I'd need as big of a patch as you've got there.. I just want to provide my family a nice salad every couple of days.. I'd probably use succession planting to have one patch going while the other is dying off.. Will have to figure out how big of a patch I actually need to provide what I want..

[Sinfonian]

Kitty, we were eating a salad every few days consisting of three types of lettuce and spinach all spring until everything started bolting in early June. I will start a new crop of fall spinach here in the PNW soon. Note above though that I didn't eat the baby leaves, letting more grow before I picked the larger ones to eat.