STRAWBERRY SPINACH SEEDS

Blitum capitatum

ORGANIC

This strain of Strawberry Spinach has been selected by Frank Morton to germinate faster and more reliably than the common strain, which can be frustratingly unpredictable, especially for something that many of us wish to grow as a novelty.

Strawberry Spinach is a goofy little plant, having mild spinach-like leaves and peculiar swollen calyxes that look very much like bright red berries all along and at the ends of bolting stems. The “berries" are barely flavored, like a mulberry after a very wet spring, but are pleasant and fun and the extracted juice makes a nice pink edible dye. Plants in bloom grow to just 18" or so.

Though nutritious, leaves do contain oxalic acid and should not be consumed in excess. Use sparingly in salads or boil and drain handfuls of greens before cooking. For safer summer spinach, please see Erbette.

These plants will self-sow generously where they are happy and are a great addition to a permacultural landscape. Seedlings are tasty and easily culled and make a fine impromptu garden salad.

“Discovered” by European explorers around the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay. Almost certainly bred and selected by indigenous tribes or pre-Columbian seafaring settlers of this region.

Packet contains at least 100 seeds.