[Sca-cooks] Swiss Chard

[ranvaig at columbus.rr.com]

I thought I would share this from a CSA newsletter. 
http://www.twosmallfarms.com
Ranvaig

At 7:13 AM -0700 5/2/06, Two Small Farms wrote:
>Vitamins, Calcium, and Irony by Andy Griffin
>
>Swiss chard is a joke that most of us don't get. I don't mean to 
>cast aspersions on the peaceful Swiss, nor do I wish to discourage 
>consumers from eating greens that are high in vitamins, calcium, and 
>iron, but it's true; most people don't get the joke about chard. 
>Swiss citizens speak French, German, or Italian. At some point in 
>the past Swiss cooks had to hear their French compatriots to the 
>south along the Mediterranean lowlands rave about the fabulous, 
>succulent flavor of chardon. Chardon is the French for "big 
>thistle", and the word descends from the Latin carduus.
>
>Most thistles are spiny weeds, but two have been developed to serve 
>humankind. The most common type of edible thistle that we encounter 
>today is the artichoke, but the older form of domesticated thistle, 
>called chardon, cardon, cardoni, or cardoon is still around and is 
>still a staple of Mediterranean cookery. Cardoon is simply English 
>for chardon, just as artichaut is French for artichoke. Whereas 
>artichokes are appreciated for their tender flower buds with the 
>cardoon, or chardon, it is the meaty midrib of the plant's huge leaf 
>that is eaten. *
>
>Back to Switzerland. As their alpine nation is too cold to grow the 
>frost-tender chardon Swiss farmers improved a local leafy beet until 
>it's leaves sported a broad fleshy midrib in its leaf which could be 
>prepared after the fashion of the luscious thistle. The Swiss 
>succeeded at their task and smothered these beet stems in French 
>sauces. "Chardon Suisse," sniffed the French chefs, "Swiss thistle." 
>We melting pot Americans ape the French in the kitchen without 
>always understanding all that is really going on there. And so it is 
>that we should adopt what has become a popular leafy vegetable 
>world-wide and call it Swiss chard. By eating these greens we digest 
>plenty of vitamins, calcium, and iron without, perhaps, tasting any 
>irony. Half the time we throw the stem away and eat the leaf like 
>spinach, not understanding that it's stem was the whole point of the 
>vegetable.
>
>...
>*If you travel across rural Mexico you'll see a lot of tall, spiny 
>cactus trees with outstretched arms. If you're an American that grew 
>up on Road Runner cartoons and an occasional trip to Phoenix, 
>Arizona, you might think these plants are all saguaro cacti. A 
>botanist will tell you that there are many different species of 
>candelabra shaped, arborescent cacti besides the saguaro, but your 
>average Mexican will generically call them all cardon. That's 
>because the Spanish conquerors were military figures, not peaceful 
>plant taxonomists, and to them cacti, because of their spines, 
>looked like big thistles.
>
>copyright 2006 Andy Griffin