Veg of the Week - Swiss Chard

I'm trying to keep my veg of the week posts relevant to what's in season each week, or at least what is in season in MY garden each week. This has been a little difficult the last couple of posts since I just finished planting my garden on Monday evening (we had a week of hard rain that delayed me), and of course nothing is up just yet. Last night however, I was checking over my rows and I noticed a few little shoots coming up in the swiss chard row. This isn't quite as amazing as it might sound, they didn't miraculously germinate in 2 days, they have been in for about a week or more since they were one of the few items I was able to plant before the deluge. None-the less, it is still very exciting to see the first little shoots poking their heads up through the soil. (You'll probably find this to be a frequent theme as each different plant starts growing! I get excited easily hehe) They don't look like much yet, but I'll post some pictures as soon as things start looking more interesting.


Now, Swiss Chard, also know as silver beet, is a cold hardy vegetable native to Sicily. It is related botanically to regular beets, but instead of eating the root, the leaves of swiss chard are eaten. Swiss chard is one of the first vegetables to be planted in the garden since it grows well under cold conditions and should be sown as soon as the soil can be worked. In the fall swiss chard will outlive most other vegetables, and I have been known to harvest the leaves long after the first snow has covered the patch. Another nice feature of this vegetable is its vigor. It is a cut-and-come-again green, which means that the plant will regrow leaves to replace the ones that are harvested throughout the summer, supplying the gardener with a fresh supply of young tender leaves all summer long. It has an earthy and somewhat bitter flavour, the strength of which depends on its age; younger leaves and stems are milder and tender, while mature leaves have a stronger flavour and the stems may be quiet fibrous. Swiss chard is also an excellent source of many nutrients, including vitamins K, A, and C, as well as trace minerals such as magnesium, potassium, and iron. I chose to plant 'Rainbow Chard' grown by Hope Seeds, an organic seed producer in New Brunswick, which is a mixture of the many different colour variations available including white, yellow, pink, orange and red. Chard is a very versatile vegetable in the kitchen and can be steamed and dressed with vinegar, sauteed with other vegetables for a stir fry, chopped and put into a lasagna, or simply rinsed and tossed with other greens in a salad.

Wild Strawberries

Today I picked some wild strawberries. "What?!" you might say, "it's only the first week of June". You would be right in your surprise, since here on the east coast of Canada we usually have to wait until the first of JULY for these lovely sweet red berries. But this year, spring has been very early and very warm for us and nearly everything from fiddle heads to asparagus to apple blossoms are 2-3 weeks early. Now I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I could go on about climate change and weather patterns, but I'm sure that would be preaching to the choir, so to speak. Every one is at least aware, if not convinced, of the climate change argument. So I won't, I'll just say that I enjoyed the tart juicy-ness of these little berries as tiny taste of what's to come when the cultivated version is ready for picking in a few weeks. Mmmm.....

Veg of the Week - Asparagus

This week's veggie spotlight is on... ASPARAGUS!


Asparagus is a spring crop vegetable native to Europe and Northern Africa. It is a part of the lily family (like onions and garlic) and will re-grow each spring from the same plant. It grows from 100-150cms tall, although it is normally harvested while still tender at about 6-8 inches. As the season wears on the leaves at the head of the stem will open to become a delicate fern-like branch which support small pale yellow flowers. It looks something like this:



Asparagus is a very good source of dietary fiber, protein and antioxidants, as well as a multitude of vitamins and minerals including B vitamins 1-6, calcium, magnesium, and zinc. It also comes in different colours (green, white and purple) although the nutrient content would not vary much, the white variety probably has fewer anthocyanins (plant colour compounds) which function as antioxidants in the body. Still very nutritious though! The white variety is grown by simply keeping a regular green plant away from the light as it grows. With no light, the chlorophyll in the plant never gets activated, thus no green pigment. Easy, though not quite as interesting to eat!

When I started my asparagus bed, I began with root balls that I had purchased from a local seed company. After it is planted, you must wait three years before harvesting any of the shoots, to allow the plant to become strong and healthy enough to withstand harvesting. It is also possible to start asparagus from seed, but you must wait even longer before the first harvest, and I'm just not that patient!! Asparagus is a good companion plant for tomatoes, as the tomato plants repel asparagus beetles. (I can't really see many people taking advantage of this combination since asparagus is planted once in a permanent bed and mulched while tomatoes are re-planted year after year in a bed that has been tilled.)

One last interesting tidbit about asparagus (some of you may find this a little icky, I personally find it fascinating!) is the smell it causes in urine. This unique smell is caused by the breakdown, or derivatives, of asparagusic acid which is unique to young asparagus shoots. The effect on urine is remarkably fast, causing a distinct smell only 15-30 minutes after ingestion. Surprisingly, although all people's urine is affected by the smell, about 22% of people cannot smell the change in their urine. This is simply a genetic quirk, where the person lacks the autosomal gene required to pick up on the unique smell.

So there you are, a quick crash course on all you ever wanted (or didn't want!) to know about asparagus!