Tomato Salads and Yard Chard

Besides herbs and lettuces, I only planted two things in my garden plot this year: as many tomato plants as I could squeeze in my tiny plot and Rainbow Swiss Chard. As anyone who has grown tomatoes will tell you, there's little more gratifying than going out and picking you own tomatoes. It is just a joy to nurture a little plant into a five-foot tall monster stooping under the weight of its meaty fruits. This year I planted Romas (plum tomatoes,) Sweet 100's (cherries,) Champion Reds (hybrids,) two Brandwine (my heirloom fave,) a yellow variety, a heirloom variety called Goliath, and Green Zebras (a tasty heirloom, green-when-ripe with yellow and green stripes.) It has been a good year and the plants have been generous. Tomatoes cover most flat surfaces in my kitchen and for a while I was even setting them on the dining room table.

We eat tomatoes one way or another just about every night. The funny thing is that even at restaurants, I can't resist ordering a Caprese Salad. I just want to check out the tomatoes they're using and how they are serving it. Plus often they'll serve a nicer cheese like a buffalo mozzarella, instead of a plain old cow's milk one. We don't only eat caprese salad, but they're always so pretty, they beg to be photographed.

I've planted chard before, but only just a plant or two. This year, I bought a packet of seeds and went to town. Rainbow Chard is also a real pleasure to grow. It is beautiful, for one. And for two, you can cut at it and (if you have enough plants) gather enough mature leaves for a night's dinner and still let the plants continue growning (the cut-and-come-again method.) You get to go out with a scissors and fill up your arms with a colorful stems and fluffy leaves and walk back inside with a gorgeous bouquet that will become your dinner or part of it. I have probably harvested 6 nights worth through July and August and my plants are thriving. Chard will do well for you through the fall in the midwest. You could even put some seed in now and get a harvest in October. The chard below is nice and young, but it will get more sturdy and the leaves, more leathery if you let it mature. It is good both ways, you just have to cook the older leaves longer. We like to call it "yard chard" to differentiate it from the store-bought kind. Even my plants can't keep up with the amount of chard we consume, so we still buy it from the farmers market or grocery store too.