Swiss Chard Fordhook Giant
My grandma turned me on to Swiss Chard. After asking me about my garden and patiently listening to me gush on and on about it she told me her father used to grow Swiss Chard.
Bought the seeds later that day. Planted them by nightfall.
Truth is, Grandma did me a favor. Turns out the whole family loved Swiss Chard. We’ve had it in soups, sauteed as a side dish, in pasta sauces (especially tomato based), and even baked until crisp as a topper for stir fry or pasta. And that’s only some ways to eat it cooked.
The young leaves are good raw in salads, especially in spring or fall. Toss a few into your mesclun mix for an added dimension of flavor.
Swiss Chard is very forgiving. It tolerates poor soil, inattention and takes frost or even mild freezes quite well. It will even grow in partial shade and produce a respectable crop of leaves.
Plant seeds in early spring and you’ll have Swiss Chard all season long. Pick the outer leaves as they mature and leave the small inner leaves to develop. During the hottest days of summer the leaves may become slightly bitter. If this happens pick the outer leaves off the Swiss Chard once the weather cools slightly. The inner leaves will not be bitter and the cooler weather will keep them that way. Toss the bitter Swiss Chard leaves from the summer months into your compost pile.
Swiss Chard is popular with Mediterranean cooks. The first known varieties of Swiss Chard have been traced to Sicily. Varieties available include white, red or multicolored. In deference to Grandma, the only variety I’ve ever grown is Fordhook Giant. The above picture is of Swiss Chard growing in my garden right now.
European cooks value the stalks of Swiss Chard while American cooks prefer the leaves. They’re both right. The stalks are every bit as delectable as the leaves. Chop and cook the stalks like celery. The young leaves can be eaten raw or lightly sauteed; older leaves lose their slight bitterness when cooked.
Swiss Chard withstands temperatures as low as the upper 20’s. Even if the outer leaves are limp and frozen, very often the inner leaves are not. Peel off the outer leaves before discarding just in case.
For many years I supplied Grandma with fresh Swiss Chard from spring through late fall. Swiss Chard is usually one of the last things still growing in my garden at Thanksgiving, unless we have an early blizzard.
Never out of the question in Minnesota.
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[...] to originate in Sicily, the original varieties of Swiss chard had white stems, but in recent years new varieties have been developed with stems of bright colors, such as the [...]