It’s been rainy here, and the garden has gone feral. This afternoon I cut so much chard that the only place big enough to wash it all was my bathtub! It’s washed, and sitting outside in laundry baskets, waiting for morning when I’ll have time to cut, blanch, bag-and-seal and freeze it all. I hope I can get it all done before my nice cleaning person comes … SO much chard …
cmf
I'm a writer and editor based in Livingston, Montana. I moved to Livingston from the San Francisco Bay area in 2002 in search of affordable housing and a small community with a vibrant arts community. I found both. LivingSmall details my experience buying and renovating a house, building a garden, becoming a part of this community. It also chronicles my efforts to rebuild my life after the sudden death of my younger brother, and closest companion, Patrick in a car wreck.
8 Comments on “Bathtub Full of Chard”
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I thought you were going to bathe in it!
I know the feeling! I got out to the garden for the first time this week – been distracted with all our livestock troubles) and there’s prodcue everywhere – I don’t know where to start. A gourd, fully grown already – what to do with that? Frying peppers are all over the place, and of course…the zuchinni! Good thing I have the weekend to put it all up! We grew kale and spinach instead of chard htis year – so far, so good – I put in some bright lights chard but it didn’t germinate well at all… maybe too warm here now. Have fun packing greens!
My husband, The Cook of the Family, swears by Bacon and Chard. Any amount of chard can be consumed if cooked in and with bacon. (I think he lived in the South too long.)
As annoying as it is to have to sweat over a big pot of boiling water just as the weather gets hot, I keep remembering how nice it was all winter to go down to the freezer and pull out a package of my very own veggies. I know where they were grown. I know who touched/handled them. I know what chemicals weren’t sprayed on them. And they were “processed” within a day of being picked. So, it’s worth the bother … although there seems to be a lot more volume this year than last!
Well, this seems a good time and place to report (sadly) on my first-year farming disaster. Our small Charlotte-inspired plot was struck with a variety of plagues. One of the wilts felled five heirloom tomato plants (next year I’ll know to plant elsewhere and look for resistant varieties) and it appears we have some sort of bizarre genetic mutation going on with the corn (five or six tiny distorted little ears developed inside each husk with all of three or four kernels per ear — they look like miniature hairy saguaro cacti!) Early mixed lettuce crop was a huge success though, and I’m getting ready to replant with NZ spinach for a late summer harvest, followed by some winter greens. Live and learn from experience, and we’ll hope for better luck next year! Enjoy wallowing in all that chard 🙂
I’m so jealous — we have rodents who especially love all the things in the garden I especially love (beet greens, chard) and therefore there has been no chard for us. . . we just tried again with more netting for protection. We console ourselves with eating TONS OF BEANS (I froze some last week and my parents came and ate lots, too) LOTS OF ZUCCHINI (I made zucchini 3 ways in 2 days!) and when/if all those green tomatoes ripen, watch out! There should be enough for us, and the chipmunks, of those. Too bad I can’t trade you for chard. . . .
I remember, vaguely, a song about something similar. somehing about “fighting of the terrible swiss chard…”
Hey, Charlotte, it’s time for an update! I hope you’re having a great summer. I miss hearing from you — I’m checking in here a couple of times a week, at least, hoping to see what you and your garden are doing these days.