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Vegetable of the Week
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Taken from the B.Y.G.L. (Buckeye Yard and Garden Online) Newsletter
Contributing Authors: Pam Bennett, Joe Boggs, Cindy Meyer, Jim Chatfield, Erik Draper, Dave Dyke, Gary Gao, David Goerig, Tim Malinich, Becky McCann, Bridget Meiring, Amy Stone and Curtis Young |
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| VEGETABLE - SWISS CHARD (Beta cicla). Known by many names, like spinach beet, leaf beet, seakale beet, silverbeet, perpetual spinach, crab beet, chard or more specifically Swiss chard is a wonderful alternative to spinach. It is in the same family as the common garden beet and is a beautiful large-leafed vegetable with wide flat petioles (stems), almost like thin celery. This vegetable can be harvested throughout the entire gardening season and loves the heat! To harvest Swiss chard, simply cut off the outermost, fully developed leaves when they are young and tender, about 8-12" in length. Be sure to not damage the young, undeveloped, expanding leaves at the base of the rosette of foliage. It can be cooked, prepared, or utilized just like spinach, and the leaf petioles are delicious too. There are many eye to palate pleasing cultivars to choose from like those with red petioles ('Burgundy', 'Rhubarb', 'Ruby Red'), white petioles ('Fordhook Giant', 'Geneva', 'Large White Ribbed', 'Lucullus', 'Perpetual', 'Winter King', 'Virgo', 'Bionda di Lyon'), yellow petioles ('Bright Yellow', 'Gold Stem', 'Pot of Gold'), magenta petioles ('Magenta Sunset'), and a mixture of red, pink, orange, purple, white, and yellow petioles ('Five Color Silverbeet', 'Rainbow', 'Bright Lights', 'Neon Lights', 'Northern Lights'). |
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