Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla.
A somewhat mysterious plant, poorly known because it doesn't bear the right name: not really a spinach despite its nickname, not entirely a Swiss chard despite its lineage. It's in fact an old leaf-chard variety (subspecies cicla of the same Beta vulgaris as the beet), selected over the centuries not for spectacular stalks but for its tender, fine leaves with a flavour astonishingly close to spinach. The "perpetual" in its name comes from its main feature: unlike true spinach, which bolts as soon as heat and the long days of June arrive, this chard imperturbably resists bolting and produces fresh leaves throughout the whole season, from spring to hard fall frosts.
Leaves wider and milder than those of spinach, with a more discreet central vein than on classic Swiss chard, and a more delicate taste — which makes it, for many gardeners, the best all-purpose leaf of the vegetable garden. All spinach uses suit it: wilted in the pan with garlic and butter, in a lasagna or quiche, as a stand-in for a nettle soup when you don't have nettles on hand, in creamy almond pesto, in pasta with salmon, in a frittata. The harvest is by continuous picking: take outer leaves as needed and the plant produces new ones from the centre for months. A single well-sown row feeds a family in green leaves all summer — impossible with true spinach.
Grower's tip: Like all chards, each "seed" is a glomerule containing several seeds fused — sow less densely than you think and thin early. Biennial — most plants sail through the summer unflinching, then bolt the following spring. In Québec, under good mulch, several gardeners succeed in overwintering plants for an ultra-early spring harvest before bolting. Otherwise, re-sow each year — a single spring sowing carries the whole season.
- Open-pollinated. Biennial — flowering only occurs in the second year. Wind-pollinated; crosses with beets and other chards — isolate for seed saving.
- Height: 30 to 50 cm.
- Maturity: 50 to 60 days for full leaves; young leaves from 30 days.
- Exposure: full sun to part shade.
- Rich, deep, well-drained, neutral to slightly alkaline soil. Thin to 20-25 cm.
- Direct-sow as soon as the soil can be worked (early May in Québec). A single planting produces until hard frost. Tolerates light fall frosts well.
