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.