Rainbow Swiss Chard photo

[digitS']

If you think that the thick stems of Swiss chard are not to your liking. You may want to try Perpetual Spinach.

It is a chard but has narrow stems. I like it and I, especially, like beet greens. What is sold as Perpetual Spinach reminds me of beets without the purple . . . It really is not, a spinach.

An advantage to both of these chards is that they provide summer greens when other greens have burned up.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

There are beets that don't have thick or red stems. Chioggia Beets stems are only slightly red and thin stemmed. Yellow Intermediate has thin succulent very light greenish/yellow/whitish stems and tender leaves, smoother, easier to wash.

I once saw a website that had Lutz giant beet seeds. Seems there is some place in Oregon that has a giant beet contest every year... a "Miss Sugar Beet" contest? I like that!

 

[digitS']

It could be that the only thing that discourages people from growing sugar beets in their gardens is the color.

No, I'm not talking about the white color of the growing roots. I have, however, read that they cook up in 40 shades of grey.

By the way, how do you spell that word: gray or grey? I know that both are correct. "Grey" as in greyhound or "Gray" as in Gray's Harbor, Washington? I've decided on "grey" since it contains that very nondescript "e" and not the well-rounded "a." The color grey is the epitome of nondescript, don't you think? If one can say such a thing . . . anyway, not a very delightful food color . . .

It has been my experience that the darker the beet leaf color - Bull's Blood, for example - the poorer it grows in my garden. It may have something to do with the plant's use of a lot of bright, summer sunlight. It doesn't mean that I shy away from a purple beet but yellow beets have done very well in my garden. Red Ace has been a standard for quite a few years, as Early Wonder Tall Top was before it. Now . . . if I can just get DW to eat something that "bleeds" onto the plate .

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

Digit, the Cylindra is very easy to grow anywhere, very adaptible.

Have you tried the Lutz? It is grown in your climate to very large sizes.

 

[digitS']

Neither Marshall . . .

I'm not sure if I'd go for large sizes. Remember, it is "baby beets" that hold that special fascination for me. Mature beets are just okay and I will fiddle around with "thinnings" quite happily if I can get a couple of servings out of them.

The pictures of Cylindra have made me wonder about them. I tend to buy larger sized packages of seed and use them for several years. Beet seed doesn't hold up real well for that but I will have to do my inventory work here in a couple of months. There's no doubt that I can fit in a packet off the rack, tho' .

Steve