Lucullus, another variety sold in this country, has a lighter green colour and a rather narrow stem that’s the same colour as the leaf. A company I once worked for chose the variety because of this latter characteristic – as both the stem and leaves could be used in the dehydration process.
Lucullus, however, is more susceptible to bolting than Fordhook Giant. Years ago, when I started farming, there was basically only one type of Fordhook Giant – a vigorous grower with large, crinkly, dark-green leaves and a wide, curved white petiole (stem).
Gradually, we began to find that some imports had a lighter leaf colour, fewer leaf indentations and a thinner stem, which started becoming more green than white. Nowadays, in some cases, the leaves are quite smooth and bear little resemblance to the original type.
While the new varieties were emerging, I visited a farmer who still grew the original strain. I remarked on this and he said he kept the source of the seed a secret. He was getting a higher yield and demand was greater, so his spinach was fetching a better price.
A short while later, when he went to buy seed from his ‘secret source’, he found that the company’s Fordhook Giant variety had changed. As we’ll see, you can’t blame the seed company for this.
Many still say the original variety, with its dark green leaves and contrasting white stem, was more attractive. But the pronounced leaf indentations tended to collect dust. This made cleaning them for market a bigger, more labour-intensive job.
