SWISS CHARD

SWISS CHARD IS A BIT OF A MYSTERY for home cooks. It was developed by plantsmen who valued the pleasure of eating the leaves and stems of beetroots. Eventually, a separate species emerged: plants with leaves, no globe root, and named for the homeland of its botanist-inventor. While chard leaves are voluptuous, the edible stems are succulent, too, sautéed or used like celery in soups. Red stems are beautiful peeled and cut into matchsticks, or pickled to use all year long.

Here’s my fanciful notion of the Swiss part of the drama: visiting the gardens at the Château de Villandry in France, and seeing lines of red chard with their billowing tops marching down the allées, I thought of Swiss Guards at the Vatican, their helmets flamboyant with red feathers. I thought: Swiss chard! When my weekly CSA box arrives at home, and I show my daughters the vegetables, nothing excites them more than chard. They get to eat a rainbow.