Quote:
They're putting up flower spikes - the seedlike things will be flower
buds. Flowers are a necessary precursor to seeds and fruits.
You can probably still pull off some of the leaves for eating, but the
flower stems will be inedibly tough.
If plants get too stressed, eg by lack of water, they often react by a
final attempt at reproduction, ie by putting up a flower spike.
Still fine to sow seed. Have you tried chard? - like spinach, but with
broad central ribs to the leaves which can e cooked separately (they
take a few minutes longer than the leaves). Available with ribs ina
range of clours - white, yellow, orange or red.
--
Kay
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David in Normandy[_8_]
K wrote:
Still fine to sow seed. Have you tried chard? - like spinach, but with
broad central ribs to the leaves which can e cooked separately (they
take a few minutes longer than the leaves). Available with ribs ina
range of clours - white, yellow, orange or red.
I much prefer chard for it's bolt resistance compared to spinach. The
leaves are very similar culinary wise. Spinach seems to run to seed at
the drop of a hat. Chard is one of my regular veg items now. Ideal for
cropping over Winter and early spring when there isn't much choice. I
like it chopped up fine and steamed and then mixed in a cheese sauce and
served with pasta dishes. It can also be chopped fine and stir fried
with other vegetables. It is also a nice side dish on its own steamed
then with some butter mixed in it.
--
David in Normandy.
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Quote:
The trouble is, chard does not taste like spinach. Spinach has a strange,
almost salty taste, and is quite ethereal, whereas good old chard is fine
for chopping up and frying as 'Espinaces Catalanas' where you add to frying
olive oil pine nuts, garlic, strong cheese and so on. Or in Chinese
stir-fry dishes.
But spinach is more divine.
All my spinach has bolted, but I'm letting them go so I can get the seeds
and sow in Sept/Oct when it will be cooler. We have a lot of chard sigh
so I will be using that for the rest of the summer.
someone
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Thanks for the advice everyone, I looked up some information on chard & it turns out 'perpetual spinach' is one of many common names for it.
'Chard (Beta vulgaris var. cicla), also known by the common names Swiss Chard, Silverbeet, Perpetual Spinach, Spinach Beet, Crab Beet, Seakale Beet and Mangold' So it looks like I was growing chard last year without realising.'
I'm going to just harvest as many leaves as I can from the plants which have gone to seed & plant a few 'perpetual spinach' plants, I assume they should be planted before the end of this month? Thanks agian everyone.