Green to cut Swiss Chard organic seeds

The 'Verte à couper' Swiss Chard is a traditional leaf vegetable, grown for its tender dark green leaves which are picked as needed. Our organic seeds, which are open-pollinated, produce vigorous plants capable of yielding all summer and then into the late season, as long as the cold remains moderate. This cut-and-come-again chard forms a compact rosette that easily finds its place in a kitchen garden square, a large container, or an edible border.

The 'Verte à couper' Swiss chard belongs to the species Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris var. cicla, from the Amaranth family. It is known by many common names: Swiss chard, silverbeet, perpetual spinach, cut-and-come-again chard, or leaf beet. All forms of Swiss chard and beetroot derive from the sea beet of the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, naturalised far beyond and cultivated since antiquity for food. It is a biennial herbaceous plant, usually grown as an annual for its leaves.
The 'Verte à couper' variety forms a compact rosette 30 to 40 cm tall and 30 to 40 cm wide. The leaves are elongated, rather narrow, dark green, slightly blistered, borne on thin, fleshy, light green petioles, distinctly narrower than those of large-ribbed chard. The foliage is deciduous: in mild climates, if the stump is left in place, the plant may regrow the following spring, but it is most often renewed each year. Leaf harvest begins two to three months after sowing. If allowed to complete its full biennial cycle, the plant sends up an erect, glabrous, and angular flower stem, which can exceed 1 m in height. Small, inconspicuous greenish flowers, gathered in long panicles, appear in summer and are mainly wind-pollinated. The fruits form corky glomerules containing several shiny brown seeds: these are the small, irregular "grains" sown in the vegetable garden.

An heirloom variety, close to the "beet-spinach" of old treatises, cut-and-come-again chard was already used in the Middle Ages in porée, a green leaf soup that gave Swiss chard its name. In some regions of Italy, similar forms are still cultivated under the name 'erbette' and are used to fill pies, tarts, and rustic stuffings.

In the kitchen: 'Verte à couper' Swiss chard is cooked exactly like spinach. Young leaves can be mixed raw into a salad, while more mature leaves are simply sautéed in a pan with a little garlic, olive oil, or cream. It is readily used to fill quiches, savoury tarts, gratins, "green" lasagnas, omelettes, or stuffings for ravioli and vegetables. The thin midribs are cooked at the same time as the lamina, or separately, cut into small pieces.

Harvest: Leaves are harvested as needed. Cut only the outer leaves, leaving the heart intact; the plant will regrow more quickly.

Storage: It keeps for a few days in a cool place after harvest. Blanched for a few minutes and then well-drained, Swiss chard freezes very well.

The gardener's tip: Sow every fortnight, in a small row rather than all at once: you will always have tender young leaves at hand. A good mulch (dry grass, straw, shredded leaves) keeps the soil cool, reduces watering, and delays bolting in summer. And if a plant starts to bolt, don't hesitate: pull it up, replace it with a young seedling, and production continues uninterrupted.