Best Tasting Swiss Chard
 

I want to grow Swiss Chard for the first time, and there are so many varieties to try.

Which do you prefer (and why)?

Oriole, Five Color Australian Chard, and Bright Lights are varieties that caught my eye,
but is there much difference? I am zone 6, with a few weeks of hot 90 temps in July, and bloody cold for a few weeks in winter:dizzy:.

Taste/flavor are also considerations. Any opinions, information, recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I've never detected significant taste differences in Chard. If I remember correctly, Chard is beet greens without the beet. I'm not a big fan of Chard except as cooked greens and then only when mixed with milder flavored greens. I appreciate Chard for it's beautiful color and size varieties in my garden.


My chocolate Labrador gardening buddy was my primary reason for growing Chard. He loved the stems, but would not eat the leaves. He is in dog heaven now and I may not grow Chard again except for it's beauty.

I love chard and my personal favourite is Flamingo pink.
For size and super hardiness though you can’t beat the old fashioned Fordhook giant. If you are new to growing chard, bright lights is a great place to start. Blindfolded I dont think I could tell any difference in flavour but the colours are very attractive.
KarenO

I've grown Fordhook, rainbow and a few others and don't notice a huge amount of difference. I think Fordhook might be a bit milder than the red stemmed chards and the size is great.

This year I'm trying Sea Foam which I had seen a friend growing. The leaves are a little lighter green and more crinkled and he reported it had a milder taste and was noticeably different from what he had grown before - in a good way. I'm also trying Joy's Midnight (dark burgundy stems and leaves) as an interesting visual contrast. I like to tuck chard into my flowers so like it to be pretty-plus surrounding them with some marigolds helps reduce the deer pressure on them a bit. But once the deer taste the first bite, they'll eat every plant. No variety is safe!

For me through the years, other than a visual thing, chard type comes down to whether I want more stem ( like for dips or stir fries) or more leaf to use? I then cut the ones that are right, as I grow both/ several most years.

I'm not a big fan of "Rhubarb" or the other pink-stemmed varieties because I think the white-stemmed ones are milder and more tasty. I especially loath the "yellow/orange ones that comes with the "Bright Lights" variety /puke.

My favourite is Lucullus, and Fordhook Giant is my second choice :).


Linda

Not a chard fan but to be honest, I really haven't experimented with it much, with that said, I do like.
Perpetual Spinach,

[I]
(Beta vulgaris var cicla) 50 days. Belongs to the same species as chard and beets, but it has distinctive differences. The taste is more like a true spinach than ordinary chard, and the leaves look like spinach too—flatter and more pointed than chard, with slimmer stems. Very longstanding in the garden, yielding from late spring through autumn if planted early. Seldom bolts during its first year.[/I]

I grow the colored mixes primarily because they are beautiful! (I do eat some as well, but they are primarily eye candy in my garden.)

To me...all Swiss chard taste like dirt...
And I haven't been hungry for dirt, lately!

Too funny pmcg. :)) I think I agree with you. :)
They are so easy to grow though, I just wish they tasted a little less... like dirt. :))

Love chard, any and all varieties. Sometimes when the weather is JUST right, the leaves will grow to ginormous size, rivalling rhubarb. Then I use them for "fake cabbage" rolls...

The master gardeners used to grow tons of swiss chard for the food bank. I asked the driver what was popular and he confided he couldn't convince people to take the chard and it was always left over because it tasted awful. The team leader has common sense now. I wonder if it remains on the grow list.

I was never brave enough to try it to this day. I have seeds for Fordhook, so I may give it a try with a single plant. I made Collards for the garden group luncheon but it was so laden with bacon fat that I couldn't taste anything green. It was a hit!

- Lisa

That's so sad about the Food Bank people not taking the chard.

If you do grow it, you can always use some in place of spinach to make quiche, or add it to lasagna. My hubby really hates chard raw in salad, but I can get him to eat (and quite enjoy it) cooked. It's either chard or kale, poor guy! {LOL}.

Linda

Chard is not a beet green but they are kinfolks.

I like raw chard for BCT's 'Bacon Chard and Tomato' sandwiches
Chard on burgers instead of lettuce.
Chard salad.
Cooked chard with salt and butter.
Chard just about anything.
The only reason I ever liked chard to begin with was the Swiss in Swiss Chard.
As a small boy if it was Swiss it just had to be good. :lol:
Makers of all things well made and good.

I haven’t noticed much taste difference between varieties...
I grow it for use in salads and for cooked greens as it’s a more efficient use of growing space than spinach.

Won't taste like dirt if you make pickles out of the stems! Really pretty in the jar when you use red/pink chard.



Ingredients

Swiss chard stems, chopped 1/2 inch square or so
1 cup distilled white vinegar
2 cups sugar
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons Sriracha
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

Make a mixture of vinegar and sugar, then stir in onions, Sriracha, and celery seeds.
Pour it all over the chopped stems, using 3 cups liquid for every 1 1/2 cups chopped stems.
Throw it in the refrigerator for a few days, and you've got the ultimate refrigerator pickles.

The accepted name for all beet cultivars, like chard, [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_beet"]sugar beet[/URL] and [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetroot"]beetroot[/URL], is [I]Beta vulgaris[/I] subsp. [I]vulgaris[/I]

[I][URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chard[/URL]
[/I]

Yes, the chard IS a beet green, it does not make the same sort of root as a table beet or sugar beet does.


Patihum, have made those type pickles with longer stems left whole on the skinnier ones like Bright Lights. Split the fordhooks into 2 or 3 length wise pieces.

[QUOTE=Worth1;725654]Chard is not a beet green but they are kinfolks.

I like raw chard for BCT's 'Bacon Chard and Tomato' sandwiches
Chard on burgers instead of lettuce.
Chard salad.
Cooked chard with salt and butter.
Chard just about anything.
The only reason I ever liked chard to begin with was the Swiss in Swiss Chard.
As a small boy if it was Swiss it just had to be good. :lol:
Makers of all things well made and good.[/QUOTE]

Ha, ha, Worth. I think that was the old Nestle's chocolate logo..

Having never grown it, I have purchased it numerous times at the grocery.
It is/was organic, and I de-stem it, slice the leaves in strips, chop the stems like
celery, and sauté it with minced fresh garlic in EVOO, with a splash of dry vermouth or
white wine. Doesn't taste of dirt to me.

Not sure if that's because it's organic, or what. May even be hydroponic for all I know.

Will be quite interesting to see if what I grow outside tastes different from what
I can buy. :o;)

[QUOTE=Patihum;725745]Won't taste like dirt if you make pickles out of the stems! Really pretty in the jar when you use red/pink chard.



Ingredients

Swiss chard stems, chopped 1/2 inch square or so
1 cup distilled white vinegar
2 cups sugar
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons Sriracha
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

Make a mixture of vinegar and sugar, then stir in onions, Sriracha, and celery seeds.
Pour it all over the chopped stems, using 3 cups liquid for every 1 1/2 cups chopped stems.
Throw it in the refrigerator for a few days, and you've got the ultimate refrigerator pickles.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for this recipe!
It sounds wonderful. And easy!

Ooops, I didn't use Siracha just did a fridge quick pickle, like a dill pickle? They are always good to me that way.

[QUOTE=salix;725625]Love chard, any and all varieties. Sometimes when the weather is JUST right, the leaves will grow to ginormous size, rivalling rhubarb. Then I use them for "fake cabbage" rolls...[/QUOTE]


Good idea! The largest leaves softened in hot water and use them to replace grape leaves and cabbage in rolls.

[QUOTE=Worth1;725654]Chard is not a beet green but they are kinfolks.

I like raw chard for BCT's 'Bacon Chard and Tomato' sandwiches
Chard on burgers instead of lettuce.
Chard salad.
Cooked chard with salt and butter.
Chard just about anything.
The only reason I ever liked chard to begin with was the Swiss in Swiss Chard.
As a small boy if it was Swiss it just had to be good. :lol:
Makers of all things well made and good.[/QUOTE]


Yep, beets produce beets. Chard doesn't.


I was surprised to realize how much the Bok Choy I harvested today tasted like the Chard in my garden. It also has a spicy finish in the mouth like my mustard greens. I should have a really good harvest of beets, carrots, and turnips before long. I haven't figured out why I grow turnips. I don't like to eat them and no one in my family likes them. I used to plant them in empty spaces on my deer lease. The deer ate them like candy.


Watching my asparagus bed closely to see them pop up soon. They grow so fast, they can be tall and tough in a couple of days.

[QUOTE=TC_Manhattan;725766]Ha, ha, Worth. I think that was the old Nestle's chocolate logo..

Having never grown it, I have purchased it numerous times at the grocery.
It is/was organic, and I de-stem it, slice the leaves in strips, chop the stems like
celery, and sauté it with minced fresh garlic in EVOO, with a splash of dry vermouth or
white wine. Doesn't taste of dirt to me.

Not sure if that's because it's organic, or what. May even be hydroponic for all I know.

Will be quite interesting to see if what I grow outside tastes different from what
I can buy. :o;)[/QUOTE]

I was thinking of knives and clocks forgot all about chocolate. :lol:

Hey that pickle is a great idea! :D8-)
I had chard in the greenhouse one late winter, and it was really good, super tender, not too earthy at all even while it was bolting (six ft tall!!). That was "Bright Lights".

But I've heard that they produce more bitter compounds in their second year. So the fresh young stalks are probably the best.


We do grow organic and yes, it still tastes the same. :twisted:

Sorry Don, chard and beets are two of the same thing, just one produces a root vegetable we use and the other is grown for the greens. Like rat tail radishes that are grown for the seed pods and greens and produce no fattened root like other radish plants do.


edit:

If you do not care for cooked turnips, have you ever tried them pickled or sliced or julianned thinly into salads, raw that is. I am not crazy about cooked turnips, but the small raw ones are often juicy and sort of sweet. Good added into a coleslaw too.


I forgot, breaded and fried, like you would summer squash; good that way, too. Slice the turnips, salt them to draw moisture rinse, pat dry, bread as you want, fry.

... if you leave the chard plants long enough, you will indeed get very large gnarly roots to wrestle out of the ground. At least some of them, ask me how I know!

[QUOTE=salix;725819]... if you leave the chard plants long enough, you will indeed get very large gnarly roots to wrestle out of the ground. At least some of them, ask me how I know![/QUOTE]

Mine got so big it had a gravitational pull.

[QUOTE=DonDuck;725781]

I haven't figured out why I grow turnips. I don't like to eat them and no one in my family likes them.[/QUOTE]


If you haven't tried it already, give fermenting them a shot - it's easy in a simple salt brine, and the result is crispy, crunchy, savory, and delicious. Nothing like cooked at all! I do the same with Rutabagas but the turnips are always gone first! :roll:

Haven't grown Swiss Chard in a couple years but now I might, just to see if it's any good pickled and fermented. So many "earthy" tasting foods are. Thanks for the recipe, Patihum!

One of our local chefs experimented with the big ol chard roots one year... not sure how that turned out.
What is truly amazing to me, is that besides tolerating frost, cold, low light etc which it gets on both ends of the season here, that chard also is the survivor of Texas summers! :shock::surprised:
Seems like some kind of 'universal survival food', no matter what conditions.
Might be worth having some in the garden for that reason alone!

After the third year of the same plants, I was tired of the chard and chopped it down and dug it out to plant something else in the CG plot. It as still producing good and usable leaves, but just too much. Those were the Bright Light and Rhubarb Red varieties, some almost 4 ft. tall by the 3rd year.