Our little patch of
blettes (Swiss chard) is still doing well. We've had several good harvests so far and they continue to produce nice leaves. We're lucky to have them; I planted the seeds in two rows last spring, but the weeds grew faster than the plants and took over the plot. I thought the chard got choked out. One day Ken went out and pulled the weeds and noticed a couple of little chard plants among them. We continued to weed around them and they got stronger all summer. Now we're enjoying them on the table.
Most of the chard stems are white, but we got one plant with yellow stems from a different batch of seeds.
Chard leaves are very tender and sweet, much more so than spinach. The ribs are also very good, but take a little longer to cook. I'm hopeful that these will continue to produce through the first frosts of the season.
"Most of the chard stems are white, but we got one plant with yellow stems from a different batch of seeds."....
ReplyDeletetry Rainbow Chard...
a whole range of colours from white through to red, via various shades of yellow and pink...
with the occasional green stemmed thrown in...
the dark red stemmed ones have dark red leaves, too, which don't loose their colour....
and the assorted ribs look good when gently braised and served up glazed.
We've got a couple of volunteers this year...
sprung up in one of the "beans4drying" beds...
Pauline decided to leave them there to act as a marker between batches...
and boyoboy...
haven't they liked being with the beans...
they are out-performing the deliberately planted versions by miles...
benefiting from the nitrogen fixing of the bean roots I presume....
might do it dliberately next year.
I am now covering ours with a fleece tent against the frosts...
they continue to produce all winter that way....
makes a change from cabbage.
And you don't get the spring surge and bolt...
three of last years are still throwing leaf!!
Errrm, yes?
We've quite a lot of chard this year!!!
Have a spare "e" for "dliberately"
DeleteGoogle, please let us edit commmmmentz!
That looks like a great crop. I love that stuff.
ReplyDeleteI've really got to try a recipe with blettes.
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely healthy leaves! When I was in hospital in Chatellerault they gave me côtes de blette persillés - chard ribs with parsley. A touch overcooked, but the concept is good. They need to have a bit of bite when cooked.
ReplyDelete