Silver Beet (Swiss Chard)

[GaryD]

Hi,

Silver beet is one of my favourite plants.

Aside from the fact that I eat large quantities of it, everything else around here eats it, too.......chickens, quail and fish.

One of the other really good things about it is the picking season.....it runs for months. We've had many good leaves off of this old plant as the stem evidences.

Gary

[MarkEinOz]

I love chard! It forms the base of my favourite brekky hash

Garlic 1-2 smashed cloves
Chard stems (big handful) fine dice
Chard leaf shredded
Cumin seed whole tsp
2 minced chillis
salt/pepper
saute in olive oil with a knob of butter

when just about soft, throw in 1/2cup cannelini beans

add a splash of homemade BBQ sauce and finish with a teaspoon of sour cream

Mix well and pour over toast. Sounds weird but this will keep you going most of the day! Hot, sweet, smoky goodness - Love it...

[svc]

Personally I am not a big fan, both my parents and the pigs are though, we have far to much of it growing to be eaten by us humans alone. Haven't noticed any stems around that have produce quite as much as your's though Gary. We planted a few of a new strain ( to us anyway ) Bright Lights this year. It has some interesting colours ( pink, yellow , orange and red stem's) and a milder taste than the regular white stemmed variety. Will be planting a higher proportion on this variety next year. I read last week that both silver beet and beetroot have both been bred from wild beet which i found interesting for 2 such different plants.

John

[GaryD]

Hi SVC,

It's a great plant for aquaponics because it really soaks up the nitrogen. We'd probably be able to grow it year round in Brisbane if it were not for the leafhoppers and caterpillars in summer.

Gary

[bigdaddy]

In my aquaponic system folks,

silver beet and spinach grow really well,some silver beet leaves were 700mm long. I found when I get fully mature silver beet and spinach plants and they often take up 1/2 of my grow bed,the water quality in the system tends to be a bit more stable,but maybe I'm dreaming.

Any more recipes using these plants would be appreciated.

Cheers.

[RMAN]

For swiss chard, I add as much as I can fit in a 8qt pot, 1 beef bullion cube and 3 tbs real bacon chopped up. I usually boil it long enough to break it down a bit but not so long that it's mush (like 8 minutes). Drain and serve with butter. Personally, I also like to add 2 tbs of red pepper flakes to the pot but my wife doesnt like the spice.

[GaryD]

Hi RMAN,

Thanks for that tip. I eat a lot of silver beet so I'll be trying your recipe.

Gary

[Shane]

For swiss chard, I add as much as I can fit in a 8qt pot.

How large is an 8qt pot?...I struggle with anything more than kilograms to pounds conversion.

Cheers,
Shane.

[bigdaddy]

Hi Shane,

I can't quite remember exactly how much a litre is to a quart but donkeys yonks ago we used to get a pint of milk which was about 600ml and a quart of milk which by my very faded memory was about 1 litre. I'm quite happy to be corrected but that's about what I can remember.Thinking about it is a quart a quater of a gallon? Don't know, someone will tell us soon.

Thank's for the recipie RMan that's one I'll be trying as well I'm always looking at different ways to cook sillver beet, cheers for that.

Cheers.

[GaryD]

Hi,

Online Conversion (http://www.onlineconversion.com/)s is a great place to convert all of those measurements.

As it happens.....8 [US, liquid] quarts = 7.57 litres.

Gary

[Shane]

OK thanks,
I'll have to try your recipe RMAN.