Helen’s spinach and pear salad.
Autumn. The cooler weather is welcome as we continue to reap the rewards of what we have sown in our gardens, fields and orchards.
Every fall, I am fortunate to be on the receiving end of several boxes of pears from a friend’s abundantly producing backyard tree. Unlike apples, pears generally don’t store very long so I was glad to find a delicious salad recipe that includes pears. I played around with ingredients until I came up with a combination that was most appealing.
While my spring-planted spinach has long since bolted and gone to seed, a late summer/early fall planting of spinach will see me eating fresh spinach from the garden even after the snow flies.
I’ve had good success with fall seeding lettuce and spinach but I’m no expert, so I consulted Niki Jabbour, the Nova Scotia author of The Year-round Vegetable Gardener (2012) for her recommendations.
Jabbour says you can get bountiful harvests of spinach in fall and winter by direct seeding in late summer or early autumn. Choose a sunny location and enrich the soil with compost before planting. Tyee, Winter Giant or Winter Bloomsdale are good varieties for fall planting. Be sure to water seedlings until well-established. Use a cold frame or cover with a mini-hoop tunnel (easily made with PVC pipe and plastic) once daytime temperatures drop to about 8 Celsius.
Spinach seeded in late summer/early fall can yield all winter.
Jabbour makes several successive seedings, every 10 to 14 days, starting in late August until early October for a continuous supply of high quality spinach.
Spinach and Pear Salad
Dressing
45 mL (3 Tbsp.) good quality olive oil
30 mL (2 Tbsp.) good quality apple cider vinegar
15 mL (1 Tbsp.) honey or maple syrup
5 mL (1 tsp.) Dijon mustard
1 mL (¼ tsp.) salt and pepper
Salad
1250 mL (5 cups) baby spinach, washed
75 mL (¼ cup) red onion, chopped fine
1 small pear, chopped into small pieces
30 mL (2 Tbsp.) dried cranberries
30 mL (2 Tbsp.) chopped pecans
30 mL (2 Tbsp.) crumbled feta
15 mL (1 Tbsp.) crispy bacon, crumbled (optional)
In a small jar with a tight fitting lid, mix the dressing ingredients and shake well. In a large bowl, mix the salad ingredients. Toss salad with dressing a few minutes before serving.
- Helen Lammers-Helps