Malabar Spinach-have you tried it?

I grew malabar spinach/climbing spinach this year just to see how it would do and it grew great. I looked up some info on it and it says it's not really spinach, but you eat it like spinach and it is suppose to taste like spinach. You can eat the red stems too. I don't like spinach, and I only tasted one of the leaves in a salad and it tasted pretty much like a spinach leaf to me. I was wondering if any one else has tried it and what they thought of the taste of it compared to spinach, one thing about it was it was very easy to grow in hot weather.

This is mine planted in one square, on a trellis.

Wow! I'm so glad you posted this, Josh. I have read about Malabar spinach and that it's better in summer in warm climates than regular spinach. But I never knew it was a vine and would grow that tall! I had decided to try it - I, unlike you, LOVE spinach - cooked, raw, just about any way. I'll have to be sure to put it near a trellis if I do try it.

Your Malabar looks awesome!

Have grown red malabar for several years now and very much enjoy it. It is from India, has thicker leaves and does not taste quite like other regular spinach. I am going to grow it inside this winter like a vine plant just as a trial. It will root from a branch cutting and am working on getting it to root then potted now but starting from seeds was my original intent for the winter plant. It is not a hybrid so save plenty of those loads of seeds you and your town should never have to buy seeds again. That looks like the red malabar, this year I found and grew the green malabar for the first time. It has bigger leaves and other than color differs little from the red. The red malabar has become an annual mainstay in my garden for one you can easily enjoy munching on it’s thick tasty tender leaves as you work around the yard. Looks like you have 10 or so seeds started there Josh.

neat-o Josh, I gotta grow this too in the warmer months. Thanx for showing us.

I found some information on it below, believe it's the same plant (I think).

http://www.growinggroceries.com/?p=12

Growing it for first time... sprouted but now it's just sitting at a couple inches... waiting for it to explode

I didn't grow mine from seed, I ordered a plant from a catalog, and it's just one plant growing there in that square on the trellis. Mine stayed small for a long time, but then when it did start growing it really grew fast.

I'm going to try saving the seeds, so do I just save the berries, or should I try taking the seed out of the berry?

Thanks for all the information!

Josh,

I found this pdf. Hopefully it'll help.

http://www.avrdc.org/pdf/seeds/malabar.pdf

That article looks like good advice. Every time I saved seeds from malabar my wife threw them out before I could do anything with them. I was at Seed Savers Exchange a while back and they save and sell them so you could contact them also for another view point.