IT'S the fifth meeting of the Underwings Garden Club at Dolores Mission School in Boyle Heights. Children sow and transplant vegetables, herbs and flowers into six new raised beds, heeding the advice of University of California master gardener trainee Karen Jenne. A crowd gathers to watch: other students, teachers, parents, grandparents, passersby from the neighborhood.
Most gaze in wonder at one curious crop with huge, dark crumpled leaves and thick rainbow-hued stalks. They ask: "What is it?" "What does it taste like?" "Who eats it?" "How do you cook it?"
It's no wonder why they're intrigued. The vegetable in question is chard, and the garden's strutting peacock. Vividly colored and robust, chard is pretty enough to be called art. Few crops are as delicious, nutritious and easy to grow too. Now is a prime time to plant winter greens -- or reds, whites, pinks and purples, as is the case with chard. New colors keep coming to market, including selections of golden chard in spring seed catalogs.
"Everyone has added them," says Josh Kirschenbaum, commercial buyer at Territorial Seed Co. in Cottage Grove, Ore. "Gold and yellow chard have always been around, but breeders have selected the strongest strains. Unlike before, they're now as productive as the red, pink and green."
Territorial sells 'Golden Chard Organic,' with color that intensifies as leaves mature. Johnny's Selected Seeds of Albion, Maine, sells 'Golden Sunrise,' which has golden orange leaf veins and stems. California-based Renee's Garden Seeds distributes the brilliant yellow 'Pot of Gold,' which owner Renee Shepherd recommends for containers "because it's so pretty."
At Dolores Mission School, development director Shannon Smith says a few adults recognize the chard and offer recipes for salads, sautes and soups.
Chard is sometimes called leaf beet or Swiss chard, a moniker food writer Elizabeth Schneider finds insignificant and staunchly refuses to use. Known botanically as \o7Beta vulgaris\f7 var. \o7cicla\f7, it is called \o7tian cai\f7 in China, \o7cardes de bette\f7 in France and too often "What is that?" here in the states.
Although Americans seem less familiar with chard, it has a long history as an ornamental plant and versatile foodstuff around the world. Whereas we tend to cook the leafy part and chuck the ribs, discerning Italian and French chefs may savor the ribs and feed the greenery to livestock.
