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Post by steev on Apr 16, 2011 19:32:41 GMT -5
Although I like chard, the stalks aren't so tasty to me, so I like the kind that looks like spinach, thin stems. If I rip the stems out of common chard, I like it raw in a salad. Mostly, I prefer beetgreens, both for their relative lack of stem and the additional root. I think I prefer their flavor, but I've never tried them side-by-side with chard, so that may be illusion.
Chard sauteed with onion, mixed with rice and parmesan, is a nice stuffing for roasting a chicken. Some pinenuts or chopped almonds don't hurt that stuffing at all, either.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Apr 17, 2011 18:14:08 GMT -5
Chard and beets are great in risotto as well. Which has me thinking that when the beets, which are larger than the chard at this point, get a tad bit more mature, I'm gonna do just that.
I really love beet and chard greens. However, last year Martin sent me 2 varieties of mangel, a sort of sugar beet. Those were to die for delicious! I wish I could remember what the stems were like though. I didn't get any seed from them and the reason I didn't is the inspiration behind me conjuring a plan for a "seed" garden.
The beets currently growing are common things, but I feel confident they'll be scrummy never the less!
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bertiefox
gardener
There's always tomorrow!
Posts: 236
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Post by bertiefox on Apr 20, 2011 4:48:30 GMT -5
"Although I like chard, the stalks aren't so tasty to me," steev
I agree despite all the nonsense written about treating them as a separate vegetable and serving them like asparagus! Yet the French seem to do varieties with huge wide white stems. The French seem to like white vegetables with little taste as they smother them with sauces which is what gives them their taste!
I love rainbow chards and the big advantage here is that they seed everywhere and I never need to plant any. I just let them come up in the paths between the vegetable beds or any other corner not in use. I love the fact that you can harvest them late into the autumn and then they start up in spring before any of the other main vegetables come in.
I just can't believe our French neighbours who refer to them as 'cattle food'.
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Post by pierre on Apr 30, 2011 0:41:45 GMT -5
Yes Barese looks very much like a dwarf pak choi. And it took me to taste it to find it is a chard.
Wild chard, a common seaside plant here southern France, Chard and beet be they garden, fooder or sugar all are the same species and with simultaneots flowering cross more than you may want. It is the fooder beet that Berties neighbours refer to. Leaf chards (bietina) with many thin petioled small leaves are closest to wild species.
All edible, all similar taste also including for colored ones. A difference being in texture: i.e. Barese has thicker leaves. Another some being sweeter. All but the yonger leaves contain a bitter principe (oxalats?) that is taken away throwing first cooking water. Just as spinach.
Little desease and parasits excepted the leafminers that bother it during summer if you do not spray and very long harvest period makes chard the easiest cooking green in most climates. If you and neighbours have only one the same var selfseeds easily.
Five color chards are more than probably fooder beet x chard derived as if grown long enough big roots develop.
Last year I did cross Bull's Blood beet with my chards and got some hybrids ATM going to seed with this beet darker red foliage. They all are smaller than my Five colors, Blonde de Paris, Barese derived strain. Barese being a smaller var.
To be continued
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Post by cesarz on Aug 24, 2011 6:39:46 GMT -5
Hi pierre,
Do you know where I can get wild chard seeds, I have been looking for it for years.
Cesar
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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 24, 2011 7:15:26 GMT -5
Does anyone know where to get some of the more obscure color lines from the Rainbow Chards?
Rainbow chard is one of the most profitable crops I grow by area. I'd like to tweak my mix a bit more vs using the standard mix. I've noticed that last few years the mixes have been getting paler and less interesting so I've taken to starting a few of the pure color lines like Bright Yellow, Bright Orange ( a disappointment it was Bright Yellow really), and Bright Magenta. What I'd really like to find is the orange/magenta line. It may not even be a stable line. The petioles are pink magenta on the convex side and pink/orange/yellow on the concave side. Very beautiful and I wish I had more of them in my plantings.
I am also growing Larkcom's Midnight F3 from Adaptive Seeds. Their pictures look stunning, dark bull's bloods style leaves with orange/yellow petioles. So far mine aren't showing the petiole color. I hope it shows up.
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Post by 12540dumont on Aug 24, 2011 12:49:35 GMT -5
Hi Oxbow,
I have Bieta da Costa a very bright chard from Italy and Barese as well. PM me. Holly
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Post by pierre on Sept 18, 2011 3:43:08 GMT -5
Cesar
I do not know where to find wild beet seeds. Perpetual spinach/a couper/da taglio are close to wild beet.
Oxbow
I have an orange and a magenta type of my different rainbow chard as well as a dark red one but they do not come true as many are F2. All are selected toward Barese appearance that is not tall and more compact plants to gather just as a romaine lettuce or a big Pak Choy cabbage.
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Post by toad on Sept 24, 2011 15:29:12 GMT -5
Nice breeding you are doing Pierre
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