In a minute, I am going to make a confession about spinach. I feel a little bit weird coming clean on this topic, but I think we know each other well enough by now. I trust you not to call me a freak or a fool—at least not to my face—and I hope that trust is not misplaced.

Before I spill my guts about spinach, let me tell you that I harvested heaps of the stuff the other day, and my little heart was absolutely bursting with pride. Some of you will recall that I am a new and not very confident gardener, with a history of dead strawberries, microscopic carrots and stunted peas on my criminal record. Last year I joined a community garden, and under the wise guidance of Hot Beds, I planted my plot. Now my garlic is growing strong, and in addition to armfuls of spinach, I have recently plucked lettuce and Egyptian Walking Onions from my soil.

So. Back to spinach. I love spinach, I do. If there's anything I love more than fresh spinach, just wilted in a small amount of garlicky olive oil, it's...

Well. This is harder than I thought it would be. Okay, deep breath.

Frozenspinach.

Yes. When I brought home the motherload of enormous green leaves the other day, my first thought was to pop them in the freezer. Because, to be completely honest with you, I love frozen spinach even more than fresh. And naturally when I say frozen spinach, I mean frozen spinach that has been cooked, as opposed to spinach popsicles.

Normally I would wax enthusiastic about the virtues of any fresh vegetable or fruit over its frozen or canned counterpart. If you suggested that frozen corn or peas or blueberries were superior to fresh, I wouldn't even sit still long enough to have the conversation. Please. It's just ridiculous, not even worthy of discussion.

So what is it about frozen spinach, that dare I say, I find more delicious than the fresh stuff? Last night I wondered if it might be salt. Because usually when I cook fresh spinach I just plunk it down in a pan with just the washing-water clinging to its leaves. When I cook the frozen product I follow package instructions and add salt. Salt is good. So last night I sprinkled a little salt into the spinach I cooked. And the flavour was gorgeous—but slightly less gorgeous than the frozen vegetable. Because there's still this thing that happens. Fresh spinach leaves this squeaky feeling on my teeth, and frozen spinach doesn't. Why is that?

Anyway, I've never found a locally processed frozen spinach. But freezing vegetables isn't nearly the ordeal that canning is, so the next bunch I harvest is going to go in the freezer. And after I cook it I'll let you know if that squeaky teeth feeling went away.