[Sca-cooks] swiss chard =/= beet greens?

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

This is where it gets interesting (replying to my own post because I'm 
more awake now:

>From the OED: "1658 EVELYN Fr. Gard. (1675) 160 To procure the chard of 
artichoks. 1664 {emem} Kal. Hort. (1729) 195 Transplant the Beet-chard 
which you sowed in August, to have most ample Chards. 1693 {emem} De la 
Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 142 Chard-Beets..that in the middle have a large 
white, and thick downy Cotton-like Main shoot, and that downy 
Cotton-like shoot is the true Chard used in Pottages. 1832 Veg. Subst. 
Food 252 The footstalks and midribs of the leaves [of white beet]..are 
stewed and eaten under the name of Swiss chard."

>From the Britannica:
"Chard, also called  Swiss Chard 

(species Beta vulgaris variety cicla), an edible leaf beet, a variety of 
the beet of the goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae), in which the leaves 
and leafstalks, instead of the roots, have become greatly developed. The 
plant has somewhat branched and thickened, but not fleshy, roots and 
large leaves borne on stalks. It is grown for the tender leaves and 
leafstalks; the former are boiled and served like spinach, the latter 
like asparagus. Swiss chard is popular as a home-garden potherb because 
of its ease of culture, productiveness, and tolerance to moderately hot 
weather." 

Now, this is the part that is intriguing: the leaves of root beets might 
well be different than the leaves of chard, so I feel better about 
regarding them as interchangeable. But which is more like the 
Beta vulgaris leaves used in period? Especially before the development 
of the root beet?

> > Greetings! I had heard (and told others) that swiss chard was the modern
> > version of 'leaf beet'. Of course now I can't remember where I found
> > that info, and some friends of mine and I were wondering about it.
> > Anyone have a more concrete answer and be awake enough to produce it?
> > Thank you!
> 
> Actually, I'd be very interested in what you find, since to my taste, Swiss
> Chard is not very similar to beet greens. And, interestingly enough. when
> you look through the seed catalogs, they advertise various strains of beets
> as being particularly good for greens, but I haven't noticed them saying
> that swiss chard was good as beet greens without beets.
> 
> Saint Phlip,
> CoD
> 
> "When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
>  Blacksmith's credo.
> 
>  If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
> cat.
> 
> Never a horse that cain't be rode,
> And never a rider who cain't be throwed....

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you 
just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have 
helped you become who you are. " -- Mr. Fred Rogers