Malabar Spinach

Malabar Spinach is not spinach at all but it sure looks like it and tastes like it!  I stumbled on to it in a seed catalog last winter.  It was billed as being heat tolerant, bolt resistant and would last through out the summer. 

While visiting with some other Master Gardeners, I found out that some of them had seen it growing in Olathe at K-State's demo gardens.  By the time they found it, it was growing huge.  Vining up and spilling over a trellis.  This gave me hope for a successful crop of Malabar of my own.

Not sure why, but mine was slow, slow, slow in taking off.  We had a really diverse (to say the least) growing season so that was likely the problem.  After a bit of babying..... it took off.  It's best to get it training onto a trellis early on.  The mid stem is thick so will break off easily if forced to stand up straight later on. 

Right now we are having lots of Malabar spinach at our table.  The leaves get large and it has a thicker texture to it.  Looks like it was worth messing with all Summer after all!