I want to introduce you to one vegetable plant with an interesting and unusual name - chard. Outdoor planting and care are so simple that the hassle of growing will be minimal. With beetroot Mangold I had an interesting story. I once sowed beet seeds. I bought two varieties, made two grooves and sowed one variety in one, and the second in the other. I threw out the seed bags, without even bothering to remember their names. Both varieties sprouted almost simultaneously.
The time has come, I thinned out my beets. Watering, loosening the aisles. Everything is as usual. And then she noticed that the tops on one row are more magnificent, the leaves are large with thick red stalks. The leaf grows "foolish", has grown almost above the knee, and the root does not think to be rounded. On the second, the leaves are much smaller, root crops began to be tied. Shrugging my shoulders, I decided that the seeds were to blame, I had no luck with them. At first I wanted to snatch out the unsuccessful beets - the granddaughter interrupted, she liked the juicy beautiful leaves. How much she guessed that they were edible, I don’t know. But, coming to the country, she first ran to this garden, tore off a whole bunch of leaves and with pleasure ate them.
Here's a funny story ...
Only the next year, browsing the information on the Internet, I learned that there is a special sort of beet - leaf beet Mangold. It became interesting. Already bought specially seeds of Mangold. And having received an incomparable harvest, I realized that I would never part with this amazing plant - chard. How many delicious dishes can I cook with him! I’ll also tell about this, but a little later.
Mangold what is it
Chard is a fairly powerful plant that can grow 60-70 cm tall. It depends on the variety. Mangold is a close relative of ordinary beets, but it does not form a root crop, but is valued precisely for its ground part - a lush rosette of large bubbly leaves that rise above the ground on tall thick petioles.
The chard has several names - schnitt chard, leaf chard, petiolate chard. It is grown for the sake of obtaining delicious and unusually healthy leaves.
They eat not only leaves, but also juicy fleshy stems, which, with proper care, reach a diameter of 7-8 mm. Petioles, like leaves, are incredibly rich in vitamins, minerals, trace elements and a variety of valuable compounds. If you introduce regular consumption of this vegetable plant into your diet, you can best increase immunity, strengthen your health.
Of the varieties that I planted on my site, I particularly liked the mid-ripe variety of the Bride chard, which allows for the first cutting of greens 55-65 days after emergence. The plant reaches a height of 50-60 cm, has large wavy dark green leaves and very thick petioles of white color, which are distinguished by their special juiciness and piquant taste.
The Beauty variety, ripening in the same time frame, is no less tasty. This chard variety also allows for several cuts per season and is characterized by high productivity. In addition, it is also unusually decorative: a lush rosette of green leaves with red veins reaches a height of 60-70 cm and looks very elegant in the garden, thanks to bright raspberry thick petioles. Yes, and he can decorate any flower garden!
Mangold - care and cultivation
The chard is unpretentious in leaving, and even a novice gardener can grow this culture. Its seeds begin to germinate already at a temperature of + 6-7 ° C, so I sow them on a bed, seasoned with organic and mineral fertilizers, in the spring at the earliest possible date.
Young shoots of chard are cold-resistant and tolerate spring frosts to minus 2 ° C without loss. To get an earlier harvest, this plant can be sown before winter, and to get tender autumn greens, it can be sown in August (in the Kuban). Only in hot summer conditions is it better to sow it to obtain a second crop in partial shade and to prevent the soil from drying out.
Chard is grown mainly as an annual plant, but it can be left in the winter - in the second year of life it forms a high peduncle with inflorescences, from which after flowering it will be possible to collect seeds and use them for future plantings.
How to plant a chard
I sow seeds in grooves shed with water and sprinkle with a layer of earth 3-4 cm. When sowing with dry seeds, seedlings in the garden appear in 10-12 days. When 2-3 real leaflets appear on the seedlings, I thin out, leaving between the sprouts 35-40 cm. Soon, the plants become stronger and actively start growing.
The main condition for obtaining a good harvest of tender juicy petioles and leaves is the timely watering of the chard.
Also for the season I spend 2-3 dressings: the first 7-10 days after germination, using nitrogen fertilizers, for the second and third dressings, which I spend with an interval of 17-20 days, I use complex fertilizers. But I advise you to reduce the dose of fertilizers for each dressing by half than indicated in the instructions, in order to avoid the accumulation of nitrates in the "tops" of leaf beets.
Also regularly loosen the rows of chards and weed out weeds. During the cultivation of this culture, I have not yet found any signs of disease on it. But of the pests, the most important enemies for my chard are snails. I am saved only by the Storm. Blue granules Thunderstorms (a remedy for slugs and snails) periodically pour along the perimeter of the beds. Granules retain their properties even after 3-4 rains. Then, of course, you need to update, re-sprinkle the bed, protecting it from snails, but there's nothing to be done ...
Features of Chard Harvest
I begin to harvest the crop as it ripens, cutting off the petioles with leaves located at the edges of the outlet and not affecting its middle. In one cut, I remove no more than a quarter of the total green mass, so as not to harm the plant much. With this approach, the chard is very quickly restored and in a short time grows new greens.
Chard, recipes
Culinary experts from many countries of the world use chard to prepare main hot dishes and salads. Both leaves and young stems are involved. The taste of fresh herbs with a slight sourness, and sometimes with bitter taste, gives the dishes a special piquant and unique taste.
Chard leaf beet contains a large number of vitamins and various minerals, nutrients and acids. And you can eat leaves, both fresh in salads, and as a filling for all kinds of pies. With them, you can soups, cook borscht or stuffed cabbage from leaves to make. Well, you can freeze them, of course. But I would not advise preserving the leaves - some kind of blur is obtained. Here petioles are a completely different matter.
What is the taste of chard associated with? Fresh leaves - with a slight, almost imperceptible acidity, and in a soup it looks more like spinach, but tastes better than spinach. The taste is somewhat similar to spinach and beets at the same time - tender and sour-sweet. And how is it different from beet tops? If the tops are young, then practically nothing. But you can’t pluck her whole beetroot, there will be nothing to eat the root crop. And the chard can endlessly pick leaves, leaving the middle. They will grow and grow.
Stuffed cabbage with chard leaves
By the way, cabbage rolls from chard leaves are something extraordinary. I tried it once - now I’m just doing it: tender, wavy, silk leaves, juicy petioles. I will not write a detailed recipe, since the filling is no different from the usual one. You want, make meat stuffing, want vegetable - whoever loves. If cabbage leaves for stuffed cabbage culinary experts advise to boil a little in salted water, cut or beat off hard veins so that they become softer and do not break when wrapping minced meat, then with leaf beets everything is very simple. The leaves, like silk, themselves roll inward! Beloved cabbage with chard leaves, believe me, this is very very tasty!
Beetroot Chard Pies
Cut the leaves into wide strips, and petioles into medium-sized cubes. Slightly fry the onions until transparent, add the chopped chard, simmer a little, salt. You can add your favorite spices. Cool, add a few chopped boiled eggs, mix. This is our minced meat.
I usually make a pie from a purchase of puff pastry.
I spread the stuffing on one sheet of puff pastry and cover with another sheet of dough. I pinch the edges, slightly turning them up, pierce the top sheet with a fork in several places and place in a preheated oven. After 20-25 minutes I take out the browned cake.
With the filling for the pie with chard, you can safely fantasize. It will not be tasty! In the photo below, the puff pastry pie inside was grabbed with any hard cheese (you can Dutch, you can parmesan), the filling doesn't crumble at all, you can safely serve it on a silver platter. The chard is tender, tender, and in combination with cheese and an egg - this is something unimaginable!
Potato with chard
I read this recipe on one of their forums on the Internet. I tried it, I liked it - I'm sharing it with you. You can eat as an independent dish, but you can serve as a side dish for fried or salted fish.
I boil potatoes almost until ready, wash a large bunch of chard leaves (they are boiled very much during cooking), cut them with scissors into a potato pot and cook until potatoes are ready.
While everything is boiling, I quickly prepare the sauce: pour equal parts of flavourless olive and sunflower oil into one bowl, add 2-3 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped or minced through garlic press, and mix everything.
There are people who do not like the taste and smell of olive oil. It can be replaced with melted butter.
We drain the water from the potatoes and, while it is hot, pour oil with garlic. Fragrant, tasty, healthy!
Chard garnish for meat and fish dishes
Wonderful, wonderful side dish from chard! Light, impeccably tasty and incredibly healthy.
Chard cut strips of 1.5 cm, blanch in salted water for 2 minutes. Wring out.
Heat any vegetable oil in a pan that you like, toss 5 chopped cloves of garlic, fry until golden brown. Spread blanched and squeezed chard, salt, add a generous pinch of aromatic bazaar hops-suneli. Stew under the lid for 10 minutes. Done!
Chard leaf salad, green onion with sour cream
The composition of the salad is indicated in the header.
Who knows, he understands!
Scrambled Eggs with Chard
Favorite breakfast food. It takes 5 minutes longer to prepare (leaves need to be cut) than usual, but tastier and healthier.
I add mangold to borscht.
You can add it to the okroshka (just cut it smaller).
And in salads it will never be superfluous! Who loves greens, I advise you to try.
But actually a chard is a great thing. It is unpretentious, growing quite quickly, and useful, of course. Beautiful. It happens differently - with white stems, with yellow, with red.
It looks great on the garden! You can plant in flower beds!
I advise you to plant this amazing culture on your site in the new season. Mangold will not only help diversify the usual diet and improve health, but also will become the main decoration, both in the garden and in the flower garden.