{"id":414,"date":"2011-07-06T12:16:24","date_gmt":"2011-07-06T16:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymontys.com\/wordpress\/?p=414"},"modified":"2011-07-06T12:16:24","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T16:16:24","slug":"ask-montys-7611-veggies-for-novices-something-dandy-about-dandelions-and-swiss-chard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wordpress.mymontys.com\/?p=414","title":{"rendered":"Ask Monty’s 7\/6\/11: Veggies for Novices, Something Dandy about Dandelions, and Swiss Chard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask Monty\u2019s: <\/strong>\u201cPeople make dandelion wine out of the weed\u2019s flowers, but an old-timer recently told me you can eat the leaves too. Is this true?\u201d<\/p>\n

Heidi
\nBoalsburg, Pennsylvania<\/p>\n

Heidi:<\/strong>Yes, the entire dandelion is edible despite its bad rap as a common yard weed. It\u2019s an acquired taste and most recently I discovered a recipe in a copy of an old Mother Earth News magazine for dandelion greens saut\u00e9ed in olive oil and molasses and served over a baked potato. The flower is also used as an edible garnish in many upper end restaurants, despite it\u2019s number one popularity as a wine ingredient.<\/p>\n

Ask Monty\u2019s: <\/strong>\u201cWhat is Swiss Chard exactly? Is it easy to grow? I\u2019ve been told it tastes a lot like spinach, but it doesn\u2019t look like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susan
\nCaney, Kansas<\/p>\n

Susan: <\/strong>Swiss Chard is the forerunner of beets and a close cousin to spinach. In the kitchen, cooked chard can stand in for spinach in any recipe, while the crisp ribs of the plant can be steamed or grilled like asparagus. The beauty of chard as a garden plant is that chard tolerates light frost as well as the heat of summer. There are three types of chard I would recommend you take a closer look at. White-stemmed chard out performs their more colorful counterparts in terms of productivity and resistance. Bright colored varieties are the top of the line edible ornamentals when it comes to vegetables, but perpetual varieties have thinner stems and smaller, smoother leaves than large varieties, but they taste more like spinach than the other varieties. With perpetual varieties the more leaves you pick, the more new ones emerge from the crowns, thus reflected in their name.<\/p>\n

Ask Monty\u2019s: <\/strong>\u201cIf you had to name the top five easiest vegetables to grow, what would they be? I\u2019m a new gardener, so I am going to need some instant gratification to keep my confidence level up. What vegetables do you think make the best use of time and garden space?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronald
\nGolden, Colorado<\/p>\n

Ronald:\u00a0 <\/strong>Gardening is always an exploration of trial and error because everyone\u2019s garden habits, patience levels and environments are different, so please keep that in mind. It\u2019s a very rewarding hobby, great contribution to your grocery bill and creates an enormous amount of satisfaction when you take that first bite out of that garden fresh tomato, green bean or squash.<\/p>\n

That said, regarding your questions there has been a lot of research done on these particular subjects and they do vary from region to region. Research tells me radishes, lettuce, bush snap beans, rhubarb and cherry tomatoes are listed as the top five. For me, radishes and lettuce took a few tries before I finally got it right, so my picks would be bush snap beans, rhubarb, cherry tomatoes, asparagus and green peppers. Squash is pretty easy too, but does take up a lot of room. I even slip my green pepper and broccoli into my flower beds as nice green back drops to other plants and utilize the space that way.<\/p>\n

\"Share<\/a>Share on Facebook<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ask Monty\u2019s: \u201cPeople make dandelion wine out of the weed\u2019s flowers, but an old-timer recently told me you can eat the leaves too. Is this true?\u201d Heidi Boalsburg, Pennsylvania Heidi:Yes, the entire dandelion is edible despite its bad rap as a common yard weed. It\u2019s an acquired taste and most recently I discovered a recipe […]<\/p>\n

\"Share<\/a>Share on Facebook<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,85,8,4],"tags":[233,180,182,18,232,44,11,36,37,181],"class_list":["post-414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice","category-ask-montys","category-gardening","category-veg","tag-ask-montys","tag-dandelions","tag-easiest-vegetables-to-grow","tag-garden","tag-gardening","tag-montys-plant-food","tag-montys-plant-food-company","tag-natural-gardening","tag-natural-lawn-care","tag-swiss-chard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wordpress.mymontys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wordpress.mymontys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wordpress.mymontys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordpress.mymontys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordpress.mymontys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordpress.mymontys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordpress.mymontys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions\/416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wordpress.mymontys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordpress.mymontys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wordpress.mymontys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}