"Greens were not something we were familiar with, unless you counted iceburg lettuce "

Oh, that would be me, too, Linda! and vegetables only came out of cans when I was a kid...

One of our friends served homemade kale chips at a get-together a year or so ago... they were just like eating salty, oily air!

Memories die hard! The horrid smell of canned spinach lives forever. When I tasted fresh spinach I had a hard time believing it could be the same green lump that my mom and one sister devoured with lots of butter. Same for asparagus! I wouldn't touch either of them. Salads were always iceburg - never any variation. My mom was a very good cook with desserts, chicken, meat, etc. but not veggies.

First Swiss Chard I ever tried was the Bright Lights. Was growing it because it was pretty. I did not like the taste at all.

So, I grew the plain green chard with the white rib. Much more to my liking, although it's still not my favorite green leaf.

I continue to search out that elusive recipe...

pirl said:Memories die hard! The horrid smell of canned spinach lives forever. When I tasted fresh spinach I had a hard time believing it could be the same green lump that my mom and one sister devoured with lots of butter. Same for asparagus! I wouldn't touch either of them. Salads were always iceburg - never any variation. My mom was a very good cook with desserts, chicken, meat, etc. but not veggies.

OMG, taking me back here... went downstate to visit my mom many years ago and for a "treat" she served canned asparagus; at that time my ex and I had a huge asparagus patch and ate the stuff until we were pretty much sick of it

Now I again have a patch that provides more than plenty... but it sure is the absolute best thing in the spring!

I agree!

Now, that is some asparagus!

(Only another 4-5 months or so to go here...)

gym - do you remember the variety name of the chard that you grow? I'm open to growing a different type for a change.
Hmm - I didn't taste "real" asparagus until the past several years. I'm kind of hit-or-miss with it. Will only buy local with that one so I eat it only in the spring - no imports for winter holidays. I do steam a lot of the fresh veggies (except for greens) so not sure why asparagus doesn't do it for me.
Since there were 6 kids in my family, I grew up eating mostly canned peas or corn and sometimes green beans. And salad was mainly iceberg lettuce with not a lot of other veggies added. Now I don't even buy iceberg.

By mid June we're having asparagus dinners, asparagus soup and asparagus wrapped in prosciutto. Most neighbors love when I give some away.

Cindy,
I believe it was Fordhook.

Here're some online pics. Not all are chard, though, cause I see at least a couple of Bok/Pak Choys in the mix, LOL. But, the first row looks pretty much like the Fordhook.

It's a really pretty GREEN plant, too. Snow white ribs.

https://www.google.com/search?...

Gym - thanks for looking that up for me. May have to put it on my shopping list.

The early carrots are ready. These are Rainbow. Purple 68 is coming along nicely but need a couple more days to size up.

Those are nice looking carrots, Dillard. I never had much luck with carrots. Even growing short varieties did not do well. They either were crooked or tough. I don't grow carrots any longer. My limited space is too valuable to waste trying to grow them.

I only grow them in the winter, when I have plenty of space. Onions, English peas, and brassicas are my other winter crops. All of them are harvested in time to start summer crops. Winter grown carrots do very well here. Spring grown pretty useless.

My entire garden is in garlic so carrots, or anything else for that matter, couldn't be grown. Garlic is my "cash-crop" and helps pay for my orchid and tropical plant addiction.

I'm with you, Ken. Not much luck with carrots. We just harvested some at the school garden today that were all short, or twisted or doubles. We did have red, orange, yellow and white ones which the kids thought were really neat. The tops were big and healthy looking but I sure was expecting some decent roots. Not a one. No purples, darnit. I am blaming the lack of cool weather - it's just really cooled off well in the last 10 days or so here.

Yours are really gorgeous, farmerdill! I am jealous.

farmerdill said:The early carrots are ready. These are Rainbow. Purple 68 is coming along nicely but need a couple more days to size up.

Wow, so pretty!!

Those are gorgeous carrots!
I tried growing the short ones (Danvers Half-Long) for the first time this past season, doubting that I'd get any due to my soil. I did amend my soil with perlite just where I intended to grow the carrots and I actually got a few that were 5" long. I was surprised and plan on doing it again this year.

Franchi has many kinds of chard, and Kitazawa sells a "Japanese" chard called Umaina (#280).

It got bigger for me, and stayed more tender, than generic "Swiss Chard", but whether or not its better, you would have to decided.

One person who like Swiss Chard tried Umaina once and then was eager to get more seeds the next year.

Umaina:
http://www.kitazawaseed.com/se...

Franchi "page of chards":
http://www.growitalian.com/cat...

Chard Barese
Chard Costa Blanca
Chard Bionda di Lione
Chard Verde da Taglio (I have lots of this left from 2014 - for postage.)

Holland Greens (Tyfon) are very productive, but have almost no flavor.

Beautiful carrots, FarmerDill!

Carrots have been the single biggest indicator for me of how our garden soil has improved over the last 25 years. We started the garden "from scratch," when we moved to this house. The soil at the beginning was heavy, compacted, full of rocks big and small, very few worms, wouldn't drain in a rainstorm. We fertilized, added a lot of organic material (our lawn suffered from removing all the grass clippings, but ), and eventually even added sand to loosen things up. Plus removing LOTS of rocks....

I now no longer rototill, have an abundance of earthworms, never any standing water in the garden, and can grow "Tendersweet" carrots, an heirloom variety that is nice and long and thin, along with my standbys, Danvers and Nantes.

SCButtercup said:Someone asked the kind of rutabaga I grow. Truthfully I don't know. I think I grew a Seed Savers variety called Miss Gladys McGee.
Joan is supposed to be good, developed by wild seed farm, I think the guy over there is Jim Morton.
In the past I grew Laurentian rutabaga, which is traditional purple top and yellow flesh. The one in growing this year is white fleshed and yellow colored top not purple. What I love about it is the greens are smooth and mild tasting, a cross between cabbage and kale. So I've really gotten a lot of use of it by cooking the greens and even serving them raw. Plus we can cook the roots, I like them mashed with butter and salt. Root veggies are great way to extend garden to winter.

That was me. thank you for the reply.

I'm not sure I'll grow them, but what got me interested was the thought of making homemade pasties. I didn't realize the leaves were as good to eat as the roots, that's interesting!