March 2025: Giant Noble Spinach

This month’s seed kit features Giant Noble Spinach.  To support our environment, some seed kit materials are now available digitally. Follow the link to download a fillable planting log to print from home!

Giant Noble Spinach

A cool-weather crop that grows on large plants spreading up to 25 inches, producing slightly crinkled leaves up to 10 inches long. Its sweet flavor holds up to cooking, freezing, and canning. 

Planting Instructions

Culture: This cool-weather plant is best sown in early spring. Sow seeds about 1/2 inch deep in rows about 12–18 inches apart. Seedlings will emerge in about 7–14 days. When seedlings have grown to be about 2 inches tall and have several leaves, thin to 8–12 inches apart.  

Water: Keep soil moist, but not saturated, until seedlings emerge in 8–10 days. Thereafter, provide even moisture on a regular basis to prevent the overdrying of soil and wilting of the leaves. 

Harvest: Ready to harvest when the plant has produced at least 4–6 leaves, after about 35–65 days. For continual harvest throughout the season, pick the outside leaves allowing the middle leaves to continue to develop. To harvest all at once, cut the entire plant at the base and just above the soil line. Spinach leaves will produce a bitter flavor when they send up flowering stalks (also called bolting), so be sure to harvest before this happens. 

Culinary Tips: Sauté with butter, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Add broth and a splash of vinegar, then let simmer while preparing the rest of dinner. Yum! 

More About Giant Noble Spinach

Native to central and southwestern Asia, spinach was first cultivated as a food crop in Persia (present-day Iran). It made its way to Europe and is rumored to have been a favorite of Catherine de Medici, the Queen of France from 1547 to 1559. French dishes featuring spinach were frequently titled “a la Florentine,” in honor of her birthplace, Florence, Italy.

Spinach made its way to the New World with the first Europeans to settle here. The Giant Noble variety of spinach was introduced in the 1920s and won the All-American Selections Award in 1933.

Palak Paneer

 Serves: 4    Prep time: 15 minutes   Cook Time: 35 minutes 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. of spinach, washed and stems trimmed 
• 1 large onion, diced 
• ½ tsp. of cumin seeds 
• 2 tbsp. of ghee or unsalted butter 
• 1 green chili, diced 
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced 
• 2 tsp. of ginger, grated 
• ½ cup of water + 2 tbsp. 
• 1 medium tomato peeled, seeded, and diced 
• 1 tsp. of garam masala 
• ¼ tsp. of turmeric powder 
• ¼ tsp. of red chili powder 
• ½ tsp. of kosher salt 
• ¼ tsp. of ground black pepper 
• 1/3 cup of heavy cream 
• ½ lb. of paneer, cubed
• 1 tbsp. of lemon juice

Instructions:

1. Add ghee or unsalted butter to a pan over medium heat, add cumin seeds, and toast for 30 seconds to a minute. Add onions and sauté until soft and golden. Add 2 tbsp. of water to deglaze the pan.
2. Add garlic, ginger, and green chili, and cook for few minutes. Add in tomatoes and all spices and sauté for few minutes to combine ingredients.
3. Increase heat to high, add spinach in batches, and cook until wilted. Reduce heat to medium cooked covered for another 10 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and transfer to a blender or use an immersion blender to puree the spinach mixture.
5. Return spinach mixture to pan over medium heat, add ½ cup water, and stir to combine. Stir in paneer and heavy cream, lower heat, and simmer for 7–10 minutes. Add salt to taste. Stir in lemon juice. Serve with rice or naan.

Craft: Gratitude Tree

You’ll Need:

• Glass bottle, jar, or other substitute sturdy enough to bear the weight of the tree
• A collection of branches. Collect those you find beautiful or interesting!  
• Leaves and pinecones from your neighborhood, park, or garden
• Construction paper
• Twine or string
• Scissors
• A hole punch
• A set of markers

Instructions:

1. Gather sticks and form a bouquet inside the bottle. Try to create a tree-like structure with branches. Consider placing some pretty stones in the bottle to help stabilize it.
2. Use string or twine to suspend the leaves and pinecones from the limbs.
3. Cut out leaf-shaped pieces of paper and punch a hole in each one.
4. Write your wishes or things you’re grateful for on each paper leaf.
5. Loop twine through each hole and suspend the papers from the branches.
6. Display in your home or garden!