From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chard Quote:Chard (Beta vulgaris var. cicla), also known as Swiss Chard, Silverbeet, Perpetual Spinach or Mangold, is a leaf vegetable, and is one of the cultivated descendants of the Sea Beet, Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima. While used for its leaves, it is in the same species as the garden beet, which is grown primarily for its roots.
Chard has shiny green ribbed leaves, with stems that range from white to yellow and red depending on the cultivar. It has a slightly bitter taste. The leaves are generally treated in the same way as spinach and the stems like asparagus. Fresh young chard can also be used raw in salads.
Cultivars of chard include green forms, such as 'Lucullus' and 'Fordhook Giant', as well as red-ribbed forms such as 'Ruby Chard', 'Rainbow Chard', and 'Rhubarb Chard'.
Modern cladistic botanical taxonomic systems such as that of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group place chard and the other beets in family Amaranthaceae, but the older systems more likely to be encountered in horticultural sources place them in a family Chenopodiaceae.
I didn't check these out but recipes for silverbeet
http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=silverbeet& this makes it really clear. Silverbeet is what we call Swiss Chard
http://home.vtown.com.au/~dbellamy/vegetables/silver1.html Quote:Silver beet
Silver beet is a really useful vegetable, which can be grown all year round in cold climates. It is highly nutritious and tastes much like spinach.
Prepare soil by digging in lots of organic matter.
Plant seedlings from spring through to early autumn. The spring crop will probably go to seed in summer, so keep planting for a continuous crop. The autumn crop will last right through winter.
Mulch plants well in summer, but keep mulch away from the stems to prevent rot. Silver beet responds well to regular feeds of organic liquid fertiliser.
Harvest the leaves by snapping them of at the base of the plant. New leaves will soon grow to replace the ones already harvested.
I like to steam silver beet and use it as a side vegetable. It can be used in any recipe in the same way as spinach.
Now, for my personal assessment.
In Newfoundland people let chard grow huge, like in the illustration in the last link. They do things like chard rolls, akin to cabbage rolls. I think you have to cook them 2x to do that, thus, lose vitamins.
Me, I like the chard young and tender, both cooked and in salads. But I only use young chard in salads.
You can cut through an unrowed patch of chard 3' x 3' in 5 minutes, harvest once a week and get 30 - 50 servings into a freezer from that little space. Chard picked young continues to come tender from the freezer, but beet greens of the same size can get tough.
Spinach leaves don't grow as large. You have to keep the plant low to the ground. You have to pick the leaves one at a time and don't pick all leaves from one plant (thus, don't cut). It will grow a long stem and grow to seed in hot weather. New Zealand spinach likes hotter temperatures. Leaves are smaller, flatter and come along the stem.
IMO spinach is preferred, more choice. It keeps it's distinctive flavour through all kinds of preparation. You are always sure it's spinach you have taken out of the freezer. Not so chard.
If you steam or boil it, put a wee bit of lemon juice or cider vinegar in the water or sprinkled over the leaves, in mid cooking.
Now, the piece de resistance of all gardening seasons. This is not the salad made pre-baby carrot time from 11 types of greens using green onions. No, it is the end of
season vegetable pancakes made using 11 different veggies. Ready:
Cruise the garden counting and pick (only in your hand - no other container) 11 of the following
- a small chard leaf
- a small beet chard leaf
- a small beet green leaf and stem
- 3-5 spinach leaves
- 2 green beans
- 2 wax beans
- 3 or 4 fat juicy edible pod pea pods
- small onion (less than 1/4 cup)*
- small gherkin or cucumber** (NOT tomato. Tomatoes ruin this)
- or small zuccini in lieu of cuc**
- small carrot
- small beet, if you don't mind red pancakes
- herb leaves such as basil, chervil (especially chervil), thyme.....
- swipe one outter little celery stalk
- swipe one or two flowers from earlier picked cauliflower.
- chives
Now, you really want to keep all this stuff down to about 1.5 cups diced to about 1/4" cubes. So, wash, dice, toss. Mix up the usual white flower dough for pancakes. You can use olive oil for the dough shortening, but use butter for the cooking. Spoon onto preheated fry pan. spread out and cook slow for pancakes. Flip when it looks like it will hold together on the flip.
Smack, smack. Take your fingers away from the 1st cooked one.
I think I get a whopping big, fattening treat of about 5 pancakes.
Get it right and you'll be back out as often as you dare. & the temptation to nibble while cooking will increase for the first several days. A late frost can be disastrous to the waistline.
* white portion only
** 1/4 c or less cubes of one of these.
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