Swiss Chard is one of the easiest greens to grow, even more so than spinach or lettuce.

Swiss Chard can withstand the heat better than other greens, tolerate some shade, and gives you a larger harvest by number simply because the plants can grow so large.

It’s also one of the healthiest greens you can grow, offering several vitamins and strong antioxidant properties.

Here I go into how to grow Swiss Chard and freeze fresh leaves for later.

Let’s Dive In…

Growing Swiss Chard | A Practical Green to Grow at Home

Swiss chard is known to be a good source of fiber with a wide variety of minerals including Vitamins A-K-C, magnesium, cooper, and even iron. (Some say it rivals Kale in nutritional benefits).

These vitamins and minerals lend antioxidant properties to the plant.

It even contains the flavonoid called Kaempferol: a polyphenol that is shown to help with cancer. Here is a great link explained this more here.

Often bought and started from seed, you can also find a few Swiss chard plant starts in springtime.

No matter if you start from seed or plant start, Swiss chard can tolerate full sun and partial shade.

However, plants in full sun will get larger than those in partial shade.

Simply plant in good soil, either amended with compost or feed with basic fertilizer.

Good companions to Swiss Chard are kale, broccoli, cabbages, celery, garlic, onions, tomatoes, lavender, oregano, thyme, sunflowers, nasturtiums.

Swiss Chard Seeds to Try:

Bright Lights
Heart of Gold
Ruby Red
Flamingo
Oriole Orange
Barese

Only pests Swiss Chard gets are bugs nibbling like Japanese beetles and bunnies.

Harvest leaves as needed once they reach a few inches but keep in mind the larger leaves and stems will come along much later in the season.

Freezing Swiss Chard for Storage

Besides freeze drying, blanching and freezing Swiss Chard gives you the easiest way to store this for winter.

Tools you need:

A pot to boil water in
Skimmer or frying scoop
Bowl
Knife, cutting board
Tea towel
Freezer bags

Ingredients

Freshly harvested swiss chard
Water & Ice cubes

Instructions

Wash your chard very well.
Roughly cut you chard. You can separate your stems from your leaves if you wish, if you know you will cook with them separately.
In a pot, bring water up to a boil.
Prepare your separate bowl with cold water and ice cubes.
To blanch: Drop your chard into the boiling water for 2 minutes. Stirring to make sure all the leaves get blanched.
Quickly, drop the hot chard into the ice bath. Let sit in there for about 2-3 minutes.
Strain and place blanched chard on a towel. Pat dry.
To Freeze: Once all the chard is blanched and patted dry, place in a freezer bag of your choice. This can be vaccum sealed or in a basic zipper freezer bag.
Label and Date the bag.
Frozen Swiss Chard can last about 6 months in the freezer.