Death To Zombies

So I’ve been intending to grow Swiss Chard for years but this is the first time I’ve succeeded.  It appears to be a pretty easy leafy green to grow and it tolerates the heat more than Arugula.  I planted two patches of it and the one that was well weeded grew steadily and the one that needed more weeding grew at 1/3 to 1/2 the pace of it’s competitor.  I’ve fixed the weed problem now by removing many weeds and mulching with chopped leaves.

Another nice thing bout Swiss Chard is that you just harvest a few leaves from each plant and it continues to replenish.  Even better, you don’t need scissors or a knive.  Just snap ‘em off and take ‘em to the kitchen.  The only downside is that, like spinach, when you cook it down it rapidly reduces as it loses moisture.  So an entire bunch of Swiss Chard(about 16 leaves I’d say) produce 1 cup of cooked greens which is 2 servings.  They’re really nutritious servings but it’s something to keep in mind when you grow it.

I’m trying to track how much food I intake each year in order to predict how much to stockpile and how much to grow.  You’re now going to see a steady tally at the bottom of each post even if I don’t blog specifically about what I ate that day.

Produced and eaten since 6/1/2011:

1/2c Swiss Chard

Supplemented by store bought:

1 clove garlic

2T olive oil

pinch crushed red pepper