Bright Lights

Anybody try these?

I did. I love it! And it looks so pretty!

I'm growing it again this year. I'm still harvesting a little about once a week from a couple of plants i potted up and moved into the greenhouse (unheated) in Nov. I read chard is related to beets and the leaves are used like beet greens. DH sautes chopped stems/ribs and chopped onion in olive oil till tender, then adds the chopped leaves for a minute or two, then stirs into whipped eggs to make scrambled eggs or omelets. Pretty tasty! Really nice mellow flavor. Haven't tried it any other way.

Me, too! Also,5-Color Silverbeet and Rainbow. Love 'em all!

Yup - that chard (any chard really) is very good. And it looks nice. You can even tuck it into your flower beds!

My fave way to eat chard or any greens really? Cut up some bacon and fry until brown. Add onions and garlic and cook a couple minutes. Add a bit of water, a bit of sugar and a pinch or so of red pepper flakes and boil. Scrape bottom of pan to loosen yummy bacon stuff. Add your chopped greens and cover. Cook until greens are tender (about 5 minutes, longer for older tougher greens or collards). Add a bit of salt and pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar... Delicious!

Wow! When to we eat?????

Sounds like raving reviews from across the country! LOL!

I like it raw also, as well as cooked. It can take the place of spinach.
Our Old Country Buffet has it mixed in with their "Spring Greens" on their salad bar. I would imagine lots of people are eating it & have no idea it is chard. Those leaves are tiny.
Bernie

It looks great in a salad too, doesn't it Bernie?

Well I have it planted,says 7 to 10 days before germination,will see!

Bernie, you mentioned tiny leaves....we had too many plants and I rarely cut little leaves. Even the large leaves were good. No bitterness at all.

I grew them for the first time last year and we loved them. Bright Lights is the same as Five-Color Silverbeet, I had heard. We had grown chard once before, many years ago, and I was disappointed because I was expecting the flavor to be similar to spinach and it's really not. When I tried it again this past summer we sautéed it with olive oil and garlic and served it as a side dish. I didn't even cook the stems first; I just sautéed everything until the leaves were wilted but the stems were still a bit crunchy and they were fantastic. Another great thing about them was that they were still producing after a lot of other greens were done, so they really extended the harvest.

Love Swiss Chard. I tried it for the first time last year and just threw a couple of seeds in discarded pot and never thought twice.....it's still producing and survived our "freak" winter here in Florida. I'll be planting lots and lots more this year. One thing I loved is that I'm trying to get my kids into vegetables, so I asked my daughter to pick her favorite colored one and then I chopped it up and she put it in the pan to saute with the onions.....she at all of it - first time for her to eat anything green without bribing or begging! I'm sold now!

Sounds like I should be planting more,with all the good comments here today!!

Another nice thing about Swiss chard is that it's naturally a bit salty so we don't have to add any and it has plenty of flavor. Plus it's gorgeous; it really perked up its row in my potager!

Chard is my new favorite salad vegetable -- Like Msrobin, I dug up what I had outside last fall and planted it in my greenhouse, and it has provided me with fresh greens all winter. I haven't tried the Bright Lights, but sure will after all the reviews here. Also I have never cooked chard or spinach! Still battle-scarred from being force-fed cooked spinach as a child, I guess, LOL. But I want to try the recipes you-all have put up here, they sound really good.

I too was forced fed spinach as a kid,but when I got married,my wife used apple cider vinegar to sweeten the taste so to speak,and now I can eat it just fine.

Glowing reports for Bright lights! :)

The Bright Lights is extremely colorful and would look beautiful mixed in flower beds.

I haven't had regular chard, so I don't know if there is much difference in taste. Hmm, as a salad vegetable? Will try that today. Sure is a lot easier to grow than lettuce, for me anyway. I need to look for other chard recipes, not that I'm tired of the way we eat it now, just want to try something different.

I had only had spinach with a splash of vinegar as a kid. Don't know that I ever had any in salad mixes. A friend made some creamed spinach a few months ago and it was delicious! I'm going to try it with chard leaves.

Chards grows easily on an east facing window sill throughout the winter here, as does pak choi, lettuce, and Tom Thumb peas. I didn't grow anything but herbs indoors this year - to depressed after the blight got us last year. Sure am gettin' the bug now, though.

Early in the summer, red beet greens are a great treat. We take the stems & cook until tender. Add a little butter. Delicious. Just stems, no leaves.

Hmm kind of like Rhubarb !

Did somebody say Rhubarb? I love Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie - mmmmmm good! Unfortunately, Rhubarb will not successfully grow here, so I must resort to stalking the produce guy at the Sprout's store here. When it's in season they get a limited amount and it sells fast - lol. I buy a bunch and chop/freeze some to get me through to next year. Back in Maine where I grew up it grows like weeds. We always had a big patch of it growing somewhere on our property...

I would think you might try growing it in the winter time there.

Our summers will kill it;o( Funny thing is the big box stores sell it, and people buy it. Just because they sell it doesn't mean it will grow here - lol. They also sell long day onions and we need to grow short day...

Yep the heat here is horrible as well,but not like yours!
Humidity is very high here as well.
If I lived there I'd grow everything under a mister!LOL

Locakelly, I was born & raised in Phoenix and one of our neighbors, this would have been in the late 40's early 50's, had a big vegetable garden which included a large patch of rhubarb. She would invite my mother to come down and pick some and Mother made rhubarb pies -- so I know it will grow in Phoenix. The water bill might hurt ya, though! LOL

They say but it's a dry heat...

grammie - I have heard of people trying to grow it here. I think you're right - the water bill would kill me - lol. I think it would have to have a spot it could be kept moist and shaded. If I ever create such a spot in my yard I may have to give it a try;o)

The way I love any chard is to saute the leaves/stems in some olive oil with garlic until wilted. Add cooked chick peas. Then add toasted cumin, roasted pine nuts and raisins, and serve...Oh yes, salt too.

Sounds yummy!
Almost like a warm trail mix!

BETTER!!!

Before I left for work this morning,5am,nothing was a showing,tonight as I was watering ,look to my surprise,what growth!

Only 5 days?

YAY...they are so fun to grow cause they're so colorful....

Now to thin them out in a few days,and start looking for the stems to start coloring up!
I have another package of them,think I might plant them under colorful ti plant,or coconut palm!
Decisions,Decisions!!!

When you thin them...they are great raw in salads...

When we sailed in Southern Chile we craved fresh green vegies. So, when we made friends with islanders I would ask if I could pick from their gardens - NO lettude (too cold)...only chard, beets, cabages, kine stuff. I came away with wonderful greens, the tiny new leaves, and it was heaven!!!! And they thought I was nice, but just a bit crazy!

Thanks
sounds yummy!

Aloha, I hope you are enough away from the beach not to be bothered by the tsunami today.

I used to know a lot of sailboat people, and since then I have always wondered why they don't all have seed sprouters. I'm landlocked but use my sprouter all the time. Right now I have alfafa sprouts growing and will start putting them in sandwiches & salads in a few days. I do mung beans a lot for Chinese food, too.

Is there a good reason not to sprout seeds on a sailboat? Not enough fresh water to water them daily? (Doesn't take much.)

Maybe back in those days, the 70's, sprouting seeds for fresh greens wasn't so well known.

I sprouted LOTS of seed, AZ - including lentils and beans!!!! Actually I sprout all my dried legumes before cooking...just enought to see the green nub and they are cooked!!! Yummy. It was the 90's...

I just got my 128 plug tray of Swiss Chard sprouted. I never eaten them, but going to try a few this year and sell at our markets.

Please let us know your opinion after you taste them.

Tossing them in some oliveoil, garlic and redpepper flakes until just cooked...add a pinch of sea salt...yummy.

Steaming them with new potatoes, cutting the potatoes and drizzling olive oil and red wine vinegar and a bit of salt.

In anything that asks for spinach....

One of the few things I put salt on....