A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening swiss chard

anyone grow/eat chard?
I hear it is really easy to grow and I think it is SO pretty. my gardening book has a paragraph or two about it, but all it says is what I've said above. Do you eat it like lettuce? does it taste horrible? the book didn't even say how to eat it, which it does say comments like that with other veggies?? I watched a cooking/gardening show the other day and they were cooking with and eating all kinds of herbs and veggies and used the chard they grew to accent a beautiful flower arrangement?
Is this stuff edible, but not tasty?

I have been growing Swiss Chard in a pot on my deck - Bright Lights variety. It IS so-o-o-o pretty! Either bright red stalks with burgundy-veined green leaves or sunshine yellow stalks with light green leaves!

Chard is a great cut-and-go-back plant. You can go out with kitchen shears and clip just the larger outer leaves and leave the plant to keep growing.

I prefer to keep the plants small. If you grow one plant per pot and give the room they can become quite large (head of lettuce size or bigger). At that size, the leave are best eaten cooked. Treat them like kale. Any recipe for cooking kale - you can substitute chard. Chard has a slightly bitter flavour, but not unpleasant - similar to radicchio, not as bitter as endive though. Boil with sesame seeds and soy sauce! Mmmmmm!

As I mentioned, I'm keeping mine small by planting three in one pot and harvesting the outer leaves while they're still about the size of a large mint leaf. At this size the flavour is still delicate enough to throw in a salad or put in your sandwiches for lunch.

Hope this is the info you wanted!
Enjoy!
:)
Thistle

I LOVE Chard!!! I put it in my Italian cookijng and it is perfect!!! I don't really like it raw, but I love it i stuff.. esp. if you have picky eaters like I do.. I love it in meatloaf, even tacos, but the best is in a lasagna!!!! Oh so yummy!!!!!!

So, I didn't actually put 2 & 2 together until my professional cook daughter answered some questions I had about a post Cricket (?? maybe Bestofour??) had a while back about beets. But it makes sense.

Beets & Swiss Chard are the same plant. [Waiting while you visualize... .] Beets have been bred for the roots, while chard is bred for the foliage. "Beet greens" are a poor man's chard.

Frankly, I do not care for beets-- and this is a step up from years ago when I would have said I hated them. John made beet soup yesterday & it was good. But I'm o.k. with beet greens.

As an ornamental in the veggie garden, chard can't be beat. (yuck yuck).

As well, chard/beets are a major component in micro-green seed mixes. Delicious. Let the little buggers grow to about 3" tall, chop them off and add them to a salad, or on top of a sandwich... oh... very yummy.

thanks so much for your replies on the chard. ya know, I had posted this question then completly forgot about it until I watched a cooking show this morning. they weren't cooking with chard, but something similiar and it reminded of my question.
ok, cool. so now I know what to do with it.