SC - re: chard, AGAIN

[Nanna Rognvaldardottir]

Kylie wrote:
>I recieved a copy of "The New Oxford Book of Food
>Plants" last Friday (feel free everyone to tell me if this is known to be a
>dodgy reference; I've not come across it before) and it has this to say:
>SEAKALE-BEET or CHARD (Beta Vulgaris). This is very closely aligned to
>spinach-beet and is used in the same way. It differs mainly in having a
>broad, white leaf-stalk, up to several centimetres across, which is often
>eaten as a seperate vegetable, while the green blade is used like spinach.
>Some cultivars have reddish-purple leaf-stalks and blades.

And I received a copy of Alan Davidson´s long awaited The Oxford Companion
to Food just this morning (and shall be buried deep in it for weeks to come,
it is simply immense, I´m just thankful it wasn´t published a few years
earlier, or I would never have written my own book) - anyway, here is most
of the chard entry. But no mention of silverbeet here either - that seems to
be purely an Australian term.


"Chard. Beta vulgaris ssp circla. Also called Swiss chard, leaf beet,
seakale beet, white beet, and spinach beet. It is related to sugar beet, but
it produces large leaves and fleshy stalks, rather than a bulbous root. Its
leaves taste something like spinach, but are coarser. The stalks may be a
pale celadon colour or vivid scarlet (rhubarb or ruby chard). The stalks and
leaves are generally cooked separately in different ways.
The history of chard has been tracked back to the famous hanging gardens of
ancient Babylonia, and the vegetable evidently has a long history in the
Arab world. From the Arabic name silq came the Spanish acelga. However, the
name "chard" derives from the Latin and French words for thistle, although
chard is not related to the thistle, and eventually came to mean the stalk
or ribs of some vegetables such as chard or cardoon which is related to the
thistle. By the 19th century seed catalogues were adding "Swiss" to the
name. This was presumably to distinguish it from cardoon, but it is not
clear why the term "Swiss" was chosen, although Jane Grigson (1978)
evidently believed that the epithet originated in Dutch. Evelyn (1699) had
not used it; he referred to the "Rib of the White Beet (by the French call´d
the Chard)" with approval and made the interesting comment that it "melts,
and eats like Marrow".
The circla in the vegetable´s scientific name derives from sicula, which
refers to Sicily, one of the places where chard first grew. Chard is popular
around the Mediterranean especially in Provence and Nice, and in Catalonia,
including the Balearic Islands, where the leaves are often prepared with
pine nuts and raisins, a dish with Arabic origins."

Nanna

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