Marvellous Malabar

Malabar spinach, also known as Ceylon or Indian Spinach and a host of other names, is to date, my best find for the garden. I chanced upon some seedlings at the nursery I frequent and when I asked staff about it, they knew very little as it was in its first season there. A few months after I started growing it, almost every time I would visit the same nursery, staff would point me out to customers and tell them I was the lady to ask about Malabar!

I read whatever I could find about it, because this vine literally grows before your eyes….and it multiplies like rabbits! Perfect for our summer conditions, it thrives in hot, humid climates, just when our regular chard and spinach are wilting and turning bitter.

Early December

Two Weeks Later

Another 10 Days On

I pick the small, new leaves for salad – these have a slight lemon pepper taste whereas the larger, older leaves are fantastic in stirfry, omelettes, soups or cooked in a little garlic as a side dish (there are plenty of recipes on the Internet). I sometimes add Ras el Hanout, a North African spice mix which gives a wonderful flavour. Just be careful not to overcook it as the fleshy leaves turn slimy! Also, the leaves are tastier before the white or purple flowers blossom so eat while you can. Cutting the buds off before they blossom encourages more growth, as does picking the leaves. I wear food handling thin plastic gloves when picking the leaves as the berries, which grow in clusters, give fingers a delightful deep maroon stain!

Make sure you use a trellis or some kind of climbing frame as Malabar is a vine and always on the move! It makes a beautiful, lush hedge and can provide cooling shade for plants more susceptible to damage from direct sunlight.

Malabar Climbing

This year, all my plants have come from berries that dropped from the vines last year and lay dormant through the colder months. They popped up below my tomato bushes and at first I was pulling and throwing them out, not realising what they were. Darn, I could have made a fortune selling the hundreds of seedlings that made their way into the world in my garden! Any readers in Perth who’d like some seedlings for free, let me know and you can come and take as many as you like although a few, go a long way. I planted just four seedlings last year and grew ‘walls’ of Malabar! They are extremely easy to transplant and although initially, may look sad when moved, their displeasure lasts only a few days and then they are ‘off and running’!

'One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides.' ~W.E. Johns, The Passing Show