Willett Garden of Learning Chard

Activity: Harvest chard from garden, prepare it, and eat it.

Goal: Appreciate garden-to-table connection. Introduce new food to students who haven’t tried it before.

Supplies: • 1 bunch of chard (in cooler) • Hot pot • Red wine vinegar • Extention cord

• Slotted spoon • Plates and forks • Colander • Cutting boards & knives

How to proceed: Set up cooking cart near power outlet. Harvest one bunch of chard from the Edibles Garden (bed #1 or #4). Suppliment garden chard with some store-bought chard so that they’ll be enough. Wash chard.

While washing, start hot pot water boiling.

Cut or rip into 1” strips, including stems Submerge chard in boiling water. Cook for a few minutes (until fork can easily stab stem).

Strain chard or remove it w/ slotted spoon. Serve to students. Let them top w/ red wine vinegar if they’d like.

You can leave plates and forks in the dish bin. (I’ll take them home and run them through the dishwasher.) Background Information Along with spinach, kale, mustard greens, and collard greens, chard is referred to as “greens”. Chard belongs to the same family as beets and spinach and have similar flavor.

Uses Young chard can be used in salads. Mature chard is cooked:  Steamed with wine vinegar.  Sauteed with a bit of bacon, butter, onions, or garlic.  As lasagne filling (in place of spinach).  Steamed, then tossed with pasta and blue cheese  Cooked in soups or rice dishes.

History / Name Chard originated in the Mediterranean region. It was eaten by the Greeks and Romans. (Aristotle wrote about chard in the 4th century B.C.)

Chard is very popular in Mediterranean cooking, and is also eaten throughout Europe and

Originally, chard was a corruption of the French word for cardoon, carde, and the name was Swiss cardoon, a misnomer.

Chard is also called “Swiss Chard”. “Swiss” was used to distinguish chard from French spinach varieties by 19th century seed catalog publishers.

Nutrition Chard is a superstar of nutrition.  Vitamin K & magnesium helps maintain bone health. (Vit A helps anchor calcium in the bones, magnesium helps gives bones their physical structure.)  Vitamin A / beta-carotene are important vision nutrients.  Vitamin C helps the immune system  Iron is important to energy – it bonds with protein to form hemoglobin.  Fiber helps the digestive system work properly.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chard http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid= 16 http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/topic _id/6/id/36/