Vegetable Gardening (68 page)
The Attractive and Hardy Swiss Chard
Swiss chard (
Beta vulgaris
) has finally come of age. With the recent introduction of more colorful varieties, this green is now a top specialty treat in many gardens. (Even Aristotle wrote about the virtues of this lovely plant!) Swiss chard hails from southern Europe, where it grew up next to its close cousin, the beet. In fact, the only differences between the two vegetables are that chard (sometimes known as "spinach beet") doesn't have the bulbous root of the beet, and its greens are more tender and prolific.
I've grown Swiss chard for years because it has so many wonderful characteristics: It's easy to grow; doesn't bolt like spinach; has a consistent flavor, even in the hot summer; and has leaves that keep producing until frost. I also grow chard for the gorgeous color of its
midribs
(the middle part of the leaf). Varieties such as ‘Rhubarb' and ‘Bright Lights' make this garden green a real showstopper.
The color of the midrib is evident even at a young stage, so picking them as baby greens still yields the attractive look. These colorful varieties look so beautiful I sometimes grow them as ornamentals in my flower garden.
The following varieties all mature between 50 and 60 days from direct seeding in the garden, but the baby greens can be harvested as early as 1 month after seeding:
‘Bright Lights':
This AAS-winning hybrid variety features a mix of plants with red, pink, yellow, gold, or orange midribs on leaves that taste as good as they look. These leaves have a milder texture than other chard varieties.
‘Bright Yellow':
This open-pollinated variety's yellow midrib contrasts beautifully with the dark green leaves.
‘Fordhook Giant':
This open-pollinated variety features a thick, celerylike midrib with large, dark green savoy (crinkled) leaves. It's a heavy producer.
‘Rhubarb':
An heirloom, burgundy-red midrib variety with dark green leaves, this variety is a bit smaller than other chards, but it's still tasty and good looking.
Mixing it up with mesclun
Mesclun
is a French term that means "mixture." It caught on in the 1990s as a way to enliven salads by mixing in various colored and flavored greens and has gone mainstream ever since. Mesclun isn't actually an individual green but a mix of different greens. The flavors can be mild to piquant, depending on the ingredients in the mix. You can purchase mild, savory, and spicy individual mesclun mixes to name a few. Traditional mesclun may include a blend of lettuces, endive, arugula, cress, dandelion, and mache. Today the list of possibilities has expanded to include herbs, kales, radishes, and Chinese greens such as mizuna and pac choi. You also can get mixtures of different colored and shaped lettuce varieties that offer a mild taste. And there are even
microgreen mixtures
(greens harvested when only 1 to 2 inches tall) that can be quickly grown and added to salads.The key to any of these flavorful blends is to harvest the greens when they're small and tender — while they're still "baby" size. This usually is within 3 weeks of seeding. Because most of these greens are cold-weather tolerant, mesclun is usually the first green harvested from my garden in spring. The greens quickly regrow after cutting for a number of harvests. The greens taste great doused with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing.
Going Wild with Specialty Greens
Salad has gone through a revolution in the past 20 years. At one time, salad meant simply lettuce, spinach, and maybe Swiss chard. No longer. With the growing interest in exotic Chinese and European greens, salad palettes have expanded to include many ethnic greens, including arugula and mizuna (see Chapter 11 for more on these particular greens). Folks are even becoming interested in greens previously thought to be weeds, such as sorrel and — the scourge of lawn lovers — dandelions.
Eating these wild greens isn't a new idea; in fact, when I was a boy, my Italian grandmother picked wild dandelion greens in spring to be sautéed with garlic and olive oil. I don't bother cultivating these greens in the garden; I just eat my lawn! It's loaded with dandelions, sorrel, and plantain. Even my cultivated gardens have great annual weeds that I harvest young and mix in salads, including lamb's quarters, chickweed, and pigweed. I'm not alone; such culinary practices are being rediscovered and embraced as the interest in ethnic dishes grows.
For many wild greens, you can just go into your garden or lawn and munch away, but
never
eat greens from lawns treated with pesticides.
You have good reason to cultivate and enjoy unusual greens. In fact, many types aren't considered weeds, and you actually can cultivate them in your garden. Many of these are very easy to grow (some can even withstand freezing temperatures), they're more nutritious than traditional lettuce, and their flavors are unique and sometimes quite surprising.
Many of the most popular and more mainstream specialty greens like endive are discussed in Chapter 11. But if you're curious about growing some of the wild ones, try a few of the eyebrow-raising varieties listed here. Most can be harvested starting about 1 month after direct seeding in the garden. (Seeding gives you better varieties and more control than just waiting for the weed to pop up.) You also can find many of these varieties commercially. Check out some of my favorites:
