songbird wrote:

let grow untouched first year and harvest
next year? harvest a little this year after
they get a few big leaves? are these biannual
like beets?

They _are_ beets, albeit ones that have been bred for foliage. Pull up a
chard plant and you'll see a vestigial beet on the bottom. And yes, the
second year they will put up huge alien flower stalks festooned with
Buckyball seeds.

--
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G