New Zealand Spinach
Tetragonia tetragonioides
I
t would appear that Captain Cook’s botani them off ½-inch deep and 6 inches apart; when
cal associate Sir Joseph Banks fi rst discovered they are 2–3 inches high, thin them out. (Th ey
this fleshy spinach, which is not, in fact, related work well when small in mesclun-style lettuce
to the spinach we all know. mixes.) Eventually they’ll need up to 20 inches
Banks suggested that the pods had fl oated of breathing room.
in from somewhere in the South Pacifi c, taken New Zealand spinach also works very well
root, and flourished in the hotter, more humid as a steaming green because, like chard and kale,
coasts of Australia and New Zealand, where it doesn’t wind up on the bottom of a saucepan
ordinary spinach would have wilted away. in a deep green shrivel.
I decided to follow my planting of common
spinach after its spring season (and avoid its
bolting in the hot weather) with the more-
resilient, denser-leafed New Zealand plant. The Numbers
It is sown in the spring, when the possibility For each 100 g raw (3.5 oz ; 1 cup): 14 calories, 0 g fat,
of a late frost has definitely passed. Unlike spin 0 g saturated fat, 3 g carbohydrate, 2 g protein, 2 g
ach, it really loves hot summer weather. Start dietary fiber, 130 mg sodium
192 • GROWING AT THE SPEED OF LIFE
