Harvesting Chard

I recently harvested most of my beautiful rainbow swiss chard plants, leaving just a few that I thought might make it through the summer.  It would require some creativity in the kitchen to actually use all of this chard.  Neighbors had already had their fill of my chard bounty through the winter and spring.

A few of the chard plants were survivors through the previous summer and had huge roots.  The roots turned out not to be woody so we roasted them just as you would beets or other root vegetables.  Though you wouldn't think so by looking at them, they were actually very tasty!

Most of the chard we blanched and froze, to use later in sautes or soups.  We blanched and froze the stems separately.  For the next few days we had chard salads, chard wraps, chard falafel, and even made chard pesto!  We tried out a "chard chip" recipe found on the internet, hoping it would be a close second to the popular "kale chip", but it didn't even come close.

We still had more chard than we could eat or freeze so we pickled the chard stems and the chard roots.  I use it as relish.

So now I'm waiting to harvest some of the seeds from my best red chard plants that have bolted.  I will post more on harvesting chard seeds (a first for me) as the seeds dry on the plant.  Right now they are still green and kind of pretty to have in the garden!

I still haven't given up on the "chard chips", here's the next chip recipe
I will try - Spicy Swiss Chard Chips