I want to introduce you to one vegetable plant with an interesting and unusual name - chard. Planting and care in the open field is so simple that the trouble of growing will be minimal. With a beet Mangold I had an amusing story. I sowed beet seeds somehow. I bought two varieties, made two furrows and sowed one variety in one, and the second in the other. Sacks from under the seeds are thrown away, without bothering even to remember their names. Both varieties rose almost simultaneously.
- : How to Plant
- Fish Dishes Chard Leaf Salad, Green Onions with Sour Cream
- Scrambled Eggs
The time has come, I have thinned my beets. Watering, loosening the aisles. Everything is as usual. And then she noticed that the tops in one row were lush, the leaves were large with thick red petioles. The leaf grows "stupid", grew almost above the knee, and the root does not even think of being rounded. The second leaves are much smaller, they began to tie roots. With a shrug, I decided that the seeds were to blame, I was not lucky with them. At first I wanted to pull out an unsuccessful beetroot - my granddaughter prevented me, she liked juicy beautiful leaves. How much she guessed that they are edible, I do not know. But, coming to the cottage, she first ran to this garden bed, picked up a whole bunch of leaves and ate them with pleasure.
This is such a funny story. ..
Chard on a garden bed with salads Only the next year, looking through information on the Internet, I learned that there is a special type of beet - leaf beet Mangold. It became interesting. Bought already specially seeds of Mangold. And having received an unparalleled harvest, I realized that I would never part with this amazing plant - chard. How many delicious dishes you can cook with it! I will also tell about this, but a little later.
↑ to content ↑Mangold, what it is
Mangold is a fairly powerful plant that can grow 60-70 cm in height. It depends on the variety. Mangold is a close relative of the common beet, but it does not form a root crop, but it is valued for its land part - a lush outlet of large, bubbly leaves, towering above the ground on high, thick petioles.
There are several names for chard - Schnitt-chard, chard leaf, chard chard. Grow it for the sake of tasty and extremely healthy leaves.
Not only leaves are eaten, but also succulent, fleshy stems, which, with proper care, reach a diameter of 7-8 mm. The leaf stalks, like the leaves, are incredibly rich in vitamins, minerals, microelements and various valuable compounds. If you enter into your diet the regular use of this vegetable plant, you can best improve the immune system, strengthen your health.
Of the varieties that I planted on my plot, I particularly liked the mid-ripening chard variety Bride, which allows for the first cut of greens 55-65 days after germination. The plant reaches a height of 50-60 cm, has large wavy dark green leaves and very thick white petioles, which are distinguished by their special juiciness and spicy taste.
Grade Bride No less tasty variety Beauty, ripening in the same time frame. This variety of chard also allows for several cuts per season and is distinguished by high yield. In addition, it is also extremely decorative: a lush rosette of green leaves with red streaks reaches a height of 60-70 cm and looks very elegant in the garden, thanks to the bright crimson thick petioles. And he can decorate any flower garden!
Mangold - care and cultivation
Mangold is unpretentious in care, and even a novice gardener can grow this crop. Its seeds begin to germinate at a temperature of + 6-7 ° C, so I sow them on a bed, filled with organic matter and mineral fertilizers, in the spring at the earliest possible time.
Young shoots of chard are cold-resistant and endure spring frosts to minus 2 ° C without loss. To obtain an earlier harvest, this plant can be sown even before winter, and to obtain delicate autumn greenery, it can be sown in August( in the Kuban).Only in the conditions of a hot summer it is better to sow it for receiving a second crop in partial shade and not allow the soil to dry out.
Chard is grown mainly as an annual plant, but it can be left before winter - in the second year of life it forms a high peduncle with inflorescences, from which after flowering it will be possible to collect the seeds and use them for future plantings.
содерж to content ↑How to plant
chard Seeds are sown in the spilled water grooves and covered with a layer of earth 3-4 cm. When sowing with dry seeds, seedlings in the bed appear in 10-12 days. When 2-3 true leaves appear on the seedlings, I thin out, leaving 35-40 cm between the sprouts. Soon the plants become stronger and actively start to grow.
The main condition for obtaining a good harvest of delicate juicy petioles and leaves is timely watering of chard.
Also for the season I spend 2-3 supplements: the first 7-10 days after germination, using nitrogen fertilizers, for the second and third supplements, which I spend with an interval of 17-20 days, I apply complex fertilizers. But I advise you to reduce the dose of fertilizer for each top-dressing by half, rather than indicated in the instructions, in order to avoid the accumulation of nitrates in the “vershki” of leaf beets.
Also regularly loosen the chard aisles and weed out. During the cultivation of this culture, signs of disease, I have not yet found on it. But among the pests the most important enemies for chard are snails. Saving only Thunderstorm. Blue pellets Thunderstorms( a remedy for slugs and snails) periodically pouring around the perimeter of the bed. Granules retain their properties even after 3-4 rains. Then, of course, it is necessary to update, re-sprinkle the bed, protecting it from snails, but there's nothing you can do. ..
↑ to content ↑Features of chard harvest
Harvest is starting to clear as it ripens, cutting off the stem with leaves located along the edges of the rosetteand without affecting its middle. For one cut I remove no more than a quarter of the whole green mass, in order not to harm the plant much. With this approach, chard is very quickly restored and in a short time increases new greens.
Harvest chard Mangold,
cooking recipes Cookers from many countries around the world use chard for preparing the main hot dishes and salads. Both leaves and young stems are used. The taste of fresh herbs with a slight sourness, and sometimes with bitterness, gives the dishes a special savory and unique taste.
Salad blanks Leaf-beet chard contains a large amount of vitamins and various minerals, nutrients and acids. And you can eat the leaves, both fresh in salads, and as a filling for all kinds of pies. You can cook soups, borscht or cabbage rolls made from leaves. Well, freezing them, of course, possible. But to preserve the leaves, I would not advise - some kind of mess turns. Here the stalks are a different matter.
Stalks of chard What is the taste of chard associated with? Fresh leaves - with a light, almost imperceptible sourness, and in the soup it looks more like spinach, but tastes better than spinach. The taste is somewhat similar to spinach and beets at the same time - tender and sour-sweet. And how does it differ from beet tops? If the tops are young, then practically nothing. But you can't pinch all beets in it, the root-crop will have nothing to eat. And at the chard you can endlessly tear off the leaves, leaving the middle. They will grow and grow.
содерж to content ↑Cabbage rolls with chard leaves
Cabbage rolls made from chard leaves By the way, cabbage rolls made from chard leaves are something extraordinary. I tried it once and now I only do those: gentle, wavy, silk leaves, juicy petioles. I will not write a detailed recipe, since the filling is no different from the usual one. Do you want to make meat stuffing, you want a vegetable - who likes how. If cabbage leaves for cabbage, cooks advise to boil a little in salted water, cut off or beat off the hard streaks, so that they become softer and do not break when wrapping minced meat in them, then with sheet beet everything is very simple. The leaves, like silk, roll themselves inside! Stuffed cabbage with chard leaves, believe me, this is very, very tasty!
Stewed chard stuffed with chard Pie with beet chard
Open tart with chard leaves Cut the leaves into wide strips and the scapes into small cubes. Slightly fry onions to a transparent state, add chopped chard, stew a little, add salt. You can add your favorite spices. Cool, add a few chopped boiled eggs, mix. It turned out we minced.
Pie I usually make from purchased puff pastry.
I spread the minced meat on one sheet of puff pastry, top it with another sheet of dough. I pinch the edges, slightly wrap them up, pierce the top sheet with a fork in several places and place in a preheated oven. After 20–25 minutes, I take out the reddened pie.
Closed chard pie With chard pie filling, you can safely dream. It won't taste good! In the photo below, a puff pastry cake inside is grabbed by any hard cheese( Dutch or Parmesan), the stuffing doesn't crumble at all, you can safely serve it on a saucer. Mangold is tender-tender, and in combination with cheese and egg it is something unimaginable!
Pie with cheese, egg and chard Potato with chard
Boiled potatoes with chard This recipe was read at one of their forums on the Internet. I tried it, I liked it - I share it with you. You can eat as a separate dish, and you can serve as a side dish to fried or salted fish.
I boil the potatoes almost to readiness, wash a large bunch of chard leaves( they are strongly boiled down during cooking), cut them with scissors into a saucepan with potatoes and cook them until ready.
While everything is boiling, I quickly prepare the sauce: add equal parts of olive and sunflower oil without odor to one dish, add 2-3 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped or skipped through garlic dressing, mix everything.
There are people who do not like the taste and smell of olive oil. It can be replaced with melted butter.
Drain the water from the potatoes and, while it is hot, pour the oil with garlic. Fragrant, tasty, useful!
↑ to the contents ↑Chard garnish for meat and fish dishes
Wonderful, wonderful garnish from chard! Light, impeccably delicious and incredibly healthy.
Mangold 1.5 cm strips cut, blanch in salted water for 2 minutes. Squeeze
Heat any vegetable oil you like in the pan, throw 5 minced cloves of garlic, fry until golden brown. Posting blanched and squeezed chard, salt, add a generous pinch of fragrant market hops-suneli. Simmer under the lid for 10 minutes. Done!
Garnish for stewed chard meat Chard salad, green onions with sour cream
Salad composition is specified in the header.
Fresh green salad with sour cream Who knows, he understands!
↑ to the contents ↑Fried eggs with chard
Fried eggs with leaf beets Favorite food for breakfast. Prepares for 5 minutes longer( leaves should be cut) than usual, but tastier and healthier.
Chard I add to borscht.
Can be added to okroshka( cut only smaller).
But in salads, it will never be over! Who likes greens, I advise you to try.
But generally chard is a great thing. It is unpretentious, grows quite quickly, and useful, of course. Nice. It happens different - with white stems, with yellow, with red.
On the garden looks great! You can plant in flower beds!
I advise in the new season be sure to plant this amazing culture on your site. Mangold will not only help to diversify the usual diet and improve health, but also will be the main decoration, both in the garden and in the flower garden.
