For years it’s been difficult to buy seeds of sea beet, but there are currently at least two catalogues selling it: Pennard Plants (www.pennardplants.com, phone (01749) 860-039 and Thomas Etty www.thomasetty.co.uk, phone (01460) 298-249).

Also known as wild beet or wild spinach, and botanically as Beta vulgaris subspecies maritima, sea beet is the wild ancestor of all the beets — sugar beet, beetroot, Swiss chard and the rest. 

There aren’t many plants that produce such large amounts of food with so little effort on the part of the gardener. 

Sea beet is grown for its masses of spinach-like foliage, which many cooks prefer to spinach itself or any of the usual spinach substitutes. 

The oval leaves are quite large, glossy and dark green, pleasing to the eye both in the garden and the kitchen. They are fleshy and substantial, with a lovely, earthy flavour. 

Sea beet doesn’t boil away to nothing the way some greens do, making it ideal as a side vegetable, especially when steamed. But I think it’s at its best in Indian dishes — make sag aloo with sea beet, for instance, and I doubt you’ll ever bother cooking it with spinach again.     

It’s one of the very few vegetables native to Britain, where it’s found in coastal areas. If you garden by the seaside, and struggle to raise crops in salty conditions, sea beet certainly won’t let you down. 

Not that this robust species needs salt to do well. It can look rather weedy in the wild, but in cultivation sea beet seems to flourish in most sites and soils. Some authorities say it’s not suited to shade, but I’ve never found that to be true. 

However, if you can give it a prime spot, in rich, well-drained soil and full sun, and water it well, it will respond with bigger, longer-lasting crops of larger, more succulent leaves. 

I’ve also grown it successfully in very large patio pots. The only snag with that is that if you don’t move the tubs around now and then, strong roots will eventually emerge through the drainage holes and sink themselves deeply into the gaps between the flagstones.

You can sow the seeds in spring or in early autumn, either directly in the ground or in pots for later planting out. 

Sea beet becomes quite a big plant, in its eventual height and spread, so thin or transplant the seedlings to leave them at least one foot apart. It’s completely winter hardy, and here in Somerset I’ve often been able to pick leaves 12 months of the year. 

Although sea beet is a perennial, it isn’t always grown as one. In the summer after sowing, it will probably put up flower heads, and this will considerably reduce leaf production. 

You can keep cutting the flower heads off to prevent flowering, or you can allow it to flower and collect the seeds to re-sow. Or simply let it self-seed, so that you’ve always got some new sea beet coming on.