The wonder of chard

If the husband and son were willing, I'd be ready to start 2018's No Bought Vegetable Challenge right now.  It would mean giving up carrots and onions though, and really upping the intake of chard;  currently I'm drying and freezing all the excess chard, as I don't think we could physically eat it all right now!

Chard is such a winner in my garden:  it usually adds up to the most harvested vegetable by weight, self seeds readily, and isn't troubled much by slugs or other pests.  And it keeps on giving over the whole growing season from spring till late autumn, and even a little in winter.  And I like to cook it with anything:  curry, stew, stir-fry, casseroles...

The other day I picked nearly three pounds of chard--last year's crop is starting to go to seed, so I'm getting all I can off it before it goes over.  I've never seen leaves so big!  And because it's still early in the season, not many bugs on them (often a few earwigs and spiders like to hide in the crinkly bits).  I used to cut the leaves off with scissors but now usually just pull them off, sometimes twisting a bit if the stems are really big--which they were this time.

I took them inside to soak for twenty minutes or so in the sink, but had to divide into two batches since they wouldn't all fit at once.  Then I cut the leaves off the stems (and the thicker mid-ribs), putting the leaves to dry and chopping the stems up to freeze.  I've got nearly a full bag of stems in the freezer now, after doing this for the past several weeks.  And a couple jars of dried chard leaves, for reconstituting into stews and casseroles later in the year.

Because the above-mentioned challenge will last for a full six months this year, I'm proactively preserving anything extra to help tide us over when pickings get slim later in the year.  In future years, I hope to be fully self-reliant in vegetables year round, and getting into the habit of storing chard and other leafy greens is an integral part of that.

New season chard is getting bigger too, and will be ready to harvest within the next few weeks, right about the time last year's finishes.