Great Greens!

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If you want to fix your mustard greens in a classic Southern fashion, boil 'em up with a chunk of ham hock or fatback pork ... or cook the leaves together with a taste-complementing batch of fresh turnip tops.

TENDERGREEN

Tendergreen is actually nothing more than one particular variety of India mustard (it can be prepared the same way as other members of its family) which has such superior growing qualities that gardeners have given it a special name. The popular green (sometimes called mustard spinach, since its leaves resemble those of Popeye's favorite food) has become such a grower's delight because it matures quickly (tendergreen often takes only 25 days to age instead of the 35 or 40 required by most mustards) ... never becomes too spicy in flavor (in either hot or cold weather) ... and continues putting out mild, crisp leaves for quite a long time before it finally goes to seed. In fact—if you're careful to harvest tendergreen's leaves and not its roots—a single plant may produce enough foliage for two or three pickings!

Still—despite all its virtues—mustard spinach is definitely not a midsummer crop ... it grows best with either a spring or fall planting.

SPINACH

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) has all the growing habits of a typical green: It's a frosthardy, excellent spring and fall garden crop (which—in some areas—can even be harvested in winter) that bolts and turns bitter during hot weather. The seeds are a little slow to sprout, though, so you might want to mark your newly planted rows with some quick-starting radishes ... just to remind you not to trample on your little spinach "beginners".

Harvest the maturing crop as soon as the first five or six leaves have reached eating size (don't wait for these blades to get large and bitter). Simply snip the entire cluster off while being sure to let as much of the main stem remain intact as possible. From then on, clip each plant again whenever three or four new leaves mature.

For a flavorful vegetable dish, try using your green gatherings to make spinach pie. Begin the filling for this dinner course by cooking 2 pounds of cleaned spinach along with 2 tablespoons of butter, 1/4 teaspoon of grated nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste, and enough water to barely cover the fresh leaves. When the greens are tender, pour off the excess liquid and mix your stewed spinach with 1/4 pound of grated cheddar or Gruyere cheese. Lay this combination in a pie shell, cover it with a second crust, and place the dish in a 375*F oven. After 45 minutes, increase the heat to 450' for a few moments until the top of the pastry is crisp and golden.

Then just pull the pie out ... and dig your teeth in!

NEW ZEALAND SPINACH

Surprisingly enough, New Zealand spinach (actually a member of the carpetweed family) prefers the opposite growing season to that favored by its more common namesake: The "imported imposter" (Tetragonia expansa) is rather sensitive to frost, but makes a fine May-to-September (hot weather) greens crop.

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