Vegetable Seeds : Chard and Cooking Greens

It's worth scrolling down, as there are all sorts of other interesting greens listed here, as well as the Chard.
Once you've tried all these, don't forget the Kale, Oriental Greens,
and Mustard Greens (which have their own pages) too.

~ CHARD Seed ~
(also called LEAF BEET, SPINACH BEET & PERPETUAL SPINACH)

This variety of chard is bred to have minimal stem (and maximum leaf) for picking and cooking like spinach. It responds particularly well to repeated cutting and is one of the easiest and most productive vegetables for a a small space. A sowing in late spring can provide greens for almost a whole year, until the plants bolt the following spring.

We are always astounded when we meet gardeners who haven't tried leaf beet or chard. You rarely see it in the shops because it ideally needs to be picked soon before eating, but it is such an easy and prolific crop in the garden, and so tasty too.

Argentata is large upright chard, with dark green leaves and really wide white stems. This is the sort you find grown all over central Europe, and it does very well in the UK too.

Much bigger than the 'leaf beet chard', the leaves are slightly savoyed (="bumpy"); we think this suits the UK style of cooking well, and is more tender than the very curled types.

This plant is pretty foolproof - you can just harvest individual leaves or entire heads.

Sibilla is a strong upright chard with dark green leaves and good white stems, but they are not as wide as the 'Argentata' above.

We liked it in our trials because it has really strong colouring on its stems, as well as a good texture and flavour.

The leaves are a nice deep green, and it is very vigorous, making lots of leaves. The deep gold stalks even keep their colour well after cooking.

Very beautiful, as well as tasty. Limited seed each year, just a few hundred packets.

White Beetroot for Leaves
The succulent green leaves have been bred for cooking as leaf beet or chard. Leaves are noticeably more tender than other beetroot varieties.

Also makes great non-staining white beetroot. (see 'Beetroot' section) We often pick the beet in the morning, cook the leaves at lunch as 'greens' then eat the root for dinner.

Now this is in here with the chard because, although not a chard, it's a fantastic quick growing alternative from the farmers of Italy.

A leaf green from the Turnip family, this is ready about 4 weeks from sowing. It makes mild green leaves that have a wonderfully buttery flavour when cooked, and are also nice and mild if used raw in salads. Unlike chard it doesn't take up space for months on end, so you can just throw in a quick row here & there as a catch crop.

And here is a photo of it is cooked with a bit of butter melting on top. Tender, with a great flavour. Mmmmm! We could hardly wait to finish taking photos before we fought over who was going to eat it . . . Our verdict? Fantastic!

When to sow? It bolts in the heat, so either sow very early for spring greens, or sow after midsummer for a maincrop harvest in late summer / early autumn.

'Belleville' Leaf Sorrel
We are always surprised how few people grow sorrel, and we would encourage you to try this rather fine vegetable. Very easy to grow, producing clumps of pale green leaves with a good sharp lemon flavour - great in salads, as a lettuce substitute in sandwiches (doesn't go limp) and also very good cooked in soups and sauces.

One of the earliest green crops to start in spring and perennial - once you've got a clump going it needs no attention other than when you want to eat it. Hardy, early salad. Lemony!

~ SPINACH Seed ~

Whatever happened to the spinach?
Well, we simply cannot grow enough or find a supply of good enough quality seed,
and rather than send out seed we are dubious about, we would prefer to leave it out.

You need to be able to trust our seed, and we will stand by this, even if it means the odd gap in the catalogue.
Try Leaf Beet as an excellent and more easily grown alternative.

~ ORACH ~

We think that Orach - also known as German Mountain Spinach -
is another vegetable that should really be more widely known.

It grows quickly early in the year, supplying mild spinach-shaped leaves with a pleasant flavour and texture.
They are great as a major ingredient in salads, or cooked like any of the other greens here.

'Magenta Magic' Orach

A new orach variety found by plant breeder and collector John Navazio, this is really vigorous and has intensely purple leaves that look great in the garden and on the table.

The disc-like seed is sown from May onwards, for harvest over the summer. Plants grow to 1m tall (looking very pretty) , but are better picked when smaller as they are nice and tender when young.

Deep Purple. Specially selected for organic conditions and growing by hand on small plots.

Order SaMO - lots of seed [CO1] £1.74

'Green and Gold' Orach

This is a bright and lively mix of two orachs - the Green Velvet and the new Golden Orach. Both are from salad breeder Frank Morton.

Orach is really great in salads, and also nice as a cooked green, too.

The disc-like seed is sown from May onwards, for harvest over the summer.

Glowing green and gold leaves, with a good flavour. Specially selected for organic conditions and growing by hand on small plots.

Order SaGG - about 180 seed [CO1] £1.69

~ LEAF AMARANTHS ~

There are thousands of amaranths, but only a very few will grow well in the UK. We tried lots of different ones before we found these varieties. So if you've grown them before and been disappointed, or been told that 'you can't grow amaranth in the UK' - give these a try. We've had great reports back from all over the country - including as far north as Ullapool.

Sow amaranth in mid to late spring, starting it off in a seed tray. Don't plant out too early, it will do much better set out in June and will quickly catch up and overtake crops sown earlier in the year!

Mixed Leaf Amaranths - Available once again in 2010!

Amaranth leaves make a really good cooked green vegetable. The leaves and young shoots are wonderfully tender and delicious. Easier in the kitchen than many greens, for they grow well off the ground, so need much less washing than say spinach.

This is a mix of tall, high-yielding types such as 'Annapurna', 'Oscar Blanco' and other interesting crosses we have bred and selected in our trials. Crops heavily over a long season - they just keep making more & more shoots as you pick them. When it finally does go to flower, the seeds are white, so you can collect them for grain too.

These are amazing. Our best plant grew 15 feet tall, making 10kg of plant from a 0.0002g seed - that's a 50-millionfold increase in biomass in just 90 days!

A mixture for leaf production. Bred by us from varieties suggested by Amaranth specialist David Brenner of Iowa State University, this years' seed crop grown for us by Paul & Becky Craske.

Order LGML - about 200 tiny seed [OG2] £2.20

Feedback on our Mixed Leaf Amaranth has been pretty amazing. Here's Ike Gibson, who wrote:

"I thought you'd like a picture of the thriving crop - grown in the middle of the village of Ullapool - on the NW coast of Scotland and only 60 miles south of Cape Wrath !! No problems at all - and even the caterpillars attacking the brassicas, left it alone - encountered no pests at all!!! "

'Kerala Red' Leaf Amaranth

This amaranth is from India, and is a small plant with very intensely red leaves, stems and flowers.

It produces large quantities of delicious dark red leaves for use as a vegetable either on their own or in soups, stews and of course, curries. So beautiful you may be tempted to grow it in the flower garden instead of the vegetable plot.

Intensely red, for cooking - 200 seed [OG1] £1.85

Chard, and All Sorts of Other Greens for Cooking:

~ CHARD Seed ~
(also called LEAF BEET, SPINACH BEET & PERPETUAL SPINACH)

~ SORREL Seed ~

~ SPINACH Seed ~

~ ORACH ~

Chard, and All Sorts of Other Greens for Cooking:

~ CHARD Seed ~ (also called LEAF BEET, SPINACH BEET & PERPETUAL SPINACH)

~ SORREL Seed ~

~ SPINACH Seed ~

~ ORACH ~

~ CHARD Seed ~
(also called LEAF BEET, SPINACH BEET & PERPETUAL SPINACH)