One of the world's healthiest vegetables

The broccoli and cauliflower have all been harvested, along with the carrots.  We're finishing up the last of those veggies in our refrigerator crisper.  One vegetable that is just starting to come in strong is Swiss Chard.  It is one of the world's healthiest vegetable and is chock full of nutrients.  Not only is it nutritious, but it is absolutely gorgeous growing in the garden.  Just look at the pictures below!:

Swiss Chard

If you look at the leaves, they are somewhat thick, shiny, and resemble beets or spinach leaves.  This is because they are all in the same family.  The ribs are brightly colored and the veins in the leaves contrast against the green leaves.  To be honest, I don't know why they are called Swiss Chard since they didn't originate in Switzerland.  Actually, they are from the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

Sunlight filtering through the Swiss Chard leaves

You can tell I have several different varieties of chard growing.  On the far left you can see some chard that is green with white ribs.  Some has red ribs and others have pink ribs.  When the leaves are relatively small, we'll eat the whole thing, ribs and all.  When the plant gets bigger, the ribs get tougher and we'll cut them out and feed them to the cows and goat.

Here is a close-up of the pretty ribs that are all different colors from the bunch of chard I picked for supper tonight.  The leaves/stems were nice and tender and I was able to just snap them off with my hand versus using a knife.

Chard stems/ribs

I brought them inside and Tricia cooked them down in a cast iron skillet with some butter, water, and kosher salt.   The leaves and stems were delicious.

Chard - a delicious, nutritious, beautiful side dish

We've found that Swiss Chard is very similar to kale in that as you pick leaves off the plant, they will grow more and more.  You'll get more and more to harvest as the season goes on.  That's a good thing, because we'll be able to enjoy eating it for a while.

A Great Meal with Bold Flavor!

On the most perfect Sunday afternoon, I walked out to the Swiss Chard row and was looking at the beautiful leaves with bright red stems.  Swiss Chard is delicious.  I was looking for another way to prepare it and stumbled across This Recipe for Coconut Curry Chicken that looked very interesting and we were anxious to try it out.  We like the bold flavor of curry and the flavor of coconut milk and we had fresh Swiss Chard and carrots growing in the garden.  After looking at the recipe, we decided to double it since we were all very hungry.

Swiss Chard in the Garden

So we assembled the ingredients that were called for in the link posted above, but doubled the recipe and made a couple slight alterations for items we didn't have on hand:

4 Tablespoons butter
2 large chicken breasts, cut up
2 medium carrots, diced
2 medium onions, sliced
3 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 cans coconut milk
2 Tablespoons curry powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 cans garbanzo beans
2 bunches Swiss Chard

All the ingredients assembled

The first thing I did was process all the ingredients, dicing the carrots, slicing the onions, mincing the garlic and ginger.  While I was doing that, Tricia was cooking the chicken.  We were trying to get this prepared before church so we were racing the clock.  We added the diced carrots to the chicken and cooked for about 2 minutes.

Cooking the chicken and carrots

Then we added the onion and ginger and after a couple of minutes of cooking, we added the garlic, curry, cumin and chili powder.  We stirred it all up and allowed the flavors to get friendly.  I wish I could adequately describe the wonderful aroma that filled the kitchen.  Russ and Benjamin came in and were impressed (so far) with the recipe based solely on the aroma filling the kitchen. 

Adding the spices

Then two cans of coconut milk were added to the pot.  We filled the cans with water and poured that into the pot as well.  The recipe called for this to simmer for 20 minutes.

Now adding coconut milk

While that was simmering, I had a little time to process the 2 bunches of Swiss Chard I had harvested.  I simply cut the stem out, leaving the broad leaves for the dish.  I roughly chopped the chard and stacked to the side of the cutting board.

Removing the stems from the Swiss Chard

Nothing, and I mean nothing, goes to waste around here.  I walked to the pasture fence and threw the bright red stems of the chard over the fence for Bully, our Jersey bull, to enjoy.  In no time he wolfed down every stem.

Yes, bulls ARE attracted to the color red

I added the chopped up chard and the salt.

Adding Swiss Chard

Then I added the garbanzo beans, stirred, and allowed to cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Adding chick peas

We put a pot of rice cooking on the stove and everything was done in time for us to run out the door to church. When we returned, we opened the door to the smell of coconut curry chicken, beckoning us to get our bowls.  We served some rice and generous serving spoonfuls of the wonderful concoction over the rice in our bowls. The recipe passed the smell test, but how did it taste?

Coconut Chicken Curry with Swiss Chard

We served our bowls, sat down, held hands, thanked God for our meal, and tasted the dish. Everyone said, "Mmmmmmm...."  Delicious!  It was outstandingly flavorful and everyone went back for seconds.  This recipe is a keeper!

A Quick Look at Garden Progress

We planted our seed potatoes about a month ago on a nice February day.  The weather after that day turned for the worst - cold and wet.  It stayed like that for quite a while, too long, actually.  Fortunately, our potatoes are planted on the high side of the garden that has been built up over the years with topsoil, mulch, and compost.  About a week ago I noticed a little bit of green poking up out of the rows. By yesterday most of the potato plants had popped up and shown themselves.  Here's a nice look at a potato plant, green and ready to grow.

Potatoes Popping out of the winter ground

They look very healthy and vigorous.  I'm already thinking about eating green beans with new potatoes cooked in butter.  Slow down, Kyle.  These potatoes won't be ready to harvest until around mid-May.  I'll give them another week or so to grow and then I'll consolidate the rows, digging up plants to replace 'gaps' where the seed potatoes didn't come up for one reason or another.  That gives me more space as space is at a premium in my garden.

Healthy plants ready to grow!

Benjamin and I also planted some 'Droughtproof Wando Peas' that I had that were packaged for the 2009 crop year.  We planted them before all the rains came and I was a little concerned about them for a couple of reasons:

1. First, because the seeds are at least 5 years old.  Some seeds will last forever if stored properly.  In some seeds, the percentage of seeds that successfully germinate drops after each year.
2. Second, the rain can sometimes cause a crust to form on top of the soil that the seedling has a hard time busting through.  As a kid, we had to either rotary hoe or re-plant countless acres of soybeans for this very reason. 

My concerns were for naught, for the most part, because when I looked down the row, I saw a bunch of nice green shoots like this:

Note the tendrils ready to reach out and grab the trellis

Due to potential poor germination, I planted them a little closer than recommended - 1 inch apart as opposed to 1 1/2 inches.  It is a good thing that I did this for I see a few gaps where the peas didn't come up.  I'll take what the Good Lord gives me, though.

The bright Green of Spring

A few more things to look at.  Here is the very last of the winter crop of lettuce.  I'm really not sure the name of this one as it was part of a Mesclun mix of lettuce seeds.  I think it is pretty with a nice green color with red freckles.  We'll toss up a nice salad perhaps this weekend.

Nice head of lettuce

Here is a real show-off in the garden: Swiss Chard.  The big leaves and bright red stems and veins in the leaves make a stark contrast against the brown leaves I have in between the rows and mulching around to suppress weed growth.

Swiss Chard

Some of the Swiss Chard is green with yellow stems.  Chard's nice to look at, but better to eat!

A row of Chard

Speaking of contrasts, Bull's Blood beets are ripening.  Normal beets have dark green leaves, but Bull's Blood beets have dark red leaves, similar to, well, blood.

Bull's Blood Beets

The cabbage, kale, chard, and beets will be all moved out of the garden to make way for the Spring crop, which I'll be putting in over the next two or three weeks.

Rainbow Swiss Chard

Everything fresh from the garden is good.  We enjoy meals that are made from things that we grew right out our back door around fifty feet from our kitchen.  One thing that makes fresh foods even better is when they look good.  We try to grow foods that 'pop' with flavor AND color.  Take for example Rainbow Swiss Chard.  

Why do you think they call it RAINBOW Swiss Chard?

If there is something in the garden that catches your eye more than Rainbow Swiss Chard, I haven't found it.  Swiss Chard is in the beet family(you can see the similarity in the texture and shape of the leaves), but it doesn't make a big edible root like normal beets.  Instead, it makes sweet leaves and stems that can be eaten.

A different color

Although we grow mustard greens, turnip greens, and kale, Swiss Chard is our favorite green to eat.  In addition to tasting great and looking great, it is one of the healthiest vegetables available.


More colors...

We usually saute the chard, but it can be eaten raw as well.  It is a cool weather crop and once the temperatures start hitting the mid to upper 80's, the quality starts diminishing.  Thankfully it has still been in the 40's during the night while reaching into the 70's during the day.

Speaking of the day... The days are getting longer.  That means I can actually get more done in the evenings.  It feels so good to come home and enjoy the sights and sounds of the outdoors after being cooped up in an office all day. This afternoon from the garden, I watched Benjamin playing 'Army' in the back yard with his gun.  He ran across the field of battle and with great theatrics, fell to the ground, shot by a musket and writhed around kicking and moaning before taking his final breath.

I hollered at him, "Benjamin, don't pretend to die on the battlefield!  You know what General George Patton said about that, huh?"  He said, "Nobody ever won a war by dying for his country.  He won it by making the other dumb guy die for his!"  I sanitized the quote a little bit to remove Patton's salty language.  Man, that guy could cuss a blue streak.

From colorful language back to the colorful garden - while I was turning over some dirt right next to the mustard greens, Nosy Rosie came to tell me hi as the brilliant sun set in the sky right behind her.

Hello Rose Ethel!

Finally, I watched as the setting sun put pink highlights on the clouds.  I enjoyed the view for a while and then decided it was time to go inside and eat some supper! 

Pink sky at night, sailor's delight