How to Identify Chard in your share:
Chard, or “Swiss Chard,” has very large, dark green leaves that are slightly savoyed (or wrinkly) with rainbow colored stems. We usually distribute it in big bunches, but occasionally distribute baby leaves in bags. It is closely related to beets as well as spinach.
When it's in Season at Hartwood Farm:
All season, sporadically! Chard is reliable throughout all seasons, our only challenge is keeping the grasshoppers and deer away from it (it's the favorite crop of these two nemeses…)
Crop Category and What it Tastes Like:
Cooking green!
Chard has flavor similar to spinach or collard greens, although it is somewhat stronger than spinach and more tender than collards. The leaves are sweet, earthy, and somewhat bitter.
How to Handle and Store:
Chard is best stored in a bag in the crisper drawer. If it's a hot day at pickup and gets a bit wilted, you can re-wash it and store it in the bag and it should perk back up overnight. Even when chard starts to wilt some, it is still delicious cooked. Chard can last 2 weeks in your fridge, and shows it’s going by when it turns black or desiccates.
How to Prep for Use:
Wash your chard in a bowl of water or under running water. Lots of recipes say to discard the stems, but they are actually the best tasting part of the leaf IMO! We tend to cut off the stems and chop coarsely like celery, cooking them first for a minute or two before adding the leaves (which are best chopped coarsely or into ribbons). To chop the leaves, we roll them up and slice thinly.
Ways to Cook and Eat:
Any way you can imagine. Our chard gets big fast, so it's best lightly cooked, but chard fans might also enjoy it raw (we find it has too strong of a taste for us that way). Sautéing, braising, steaming are the best ways to prepare, and it's also great in soups. It can easily be used as a substitute for beet greens or spinach in recipes, or it can also fill in for kale, if you prefer the chard flavor to kale!
Quick and Dirty Hangry Farmer Go-To Preparations:
We love sautéed chard mixed with any egg dishes--scrambled, omelet, quiche, etc. We also add it to a lot of stir fries, substitute it all the time for spinach (they are cousins, but chard is much more available during the summer), add it in soups at the last few minutes of cooking, or sauté it with seasonings and toss it with pasta for an easy side dish.
Typical time to:
Steam—2 to 6 minutes (stem may need an extra 2 minutes--add that first!)
Sauté—2 to 6 minutes (stem may need an extra 2 minutes--add that first!)
Bake—Not recommended unless it's mixed into a dish (leaves need to be covered to avoid burning)
Boil—2 to 5 minutes (stem may need an extra 2 minutes--add that first!)
Our Favorite Recipes:
Garlicky Swiss Chard (NYT Cooking)—one of my favorite kale preparations, but works just as well for chard! Top with a fried or poached egg and eat with toast for a yummy breakfast! And go right ahead and ignore the instruction to remove the chard stems, just add them first and cook them a minute longer
Braised Swiss Chard (Real Simple)—like the quick, chard version of Southern greens! Slightly bitter, complex, and salty, this is a yummy way to use lots of chard