Urgent Gardening Question of the Week: Harvesting Swiss Chard

Now that the weather is really starting to heat up, it's easy to envision summer dinners filled with fresh vegetables from the garden.  Lisa Anne phoned in to Homegrown (Martha Stewart Sirius radio channel 112) in anticipation for her swiss chard, wondering how tall it should be before she can harvest it.  Since both of us enjoy growing and harvesting our own swiss chard, this was an easy question to answer.  Andrew, more impatient to eat the fruits of his labor, likes baby greens, so he shears off the tops of his chard patch when the plants are still fairly short and tender and eats them in a whole array of dishes.  Then he lets the plants grow back for a time, and harvests again, getting about three harvests throughout the summer.   Margaret, on the other hand, patiently lets her plants reach about a foot tall before she starts harvesting the outer leaves, which she just pulls away all throughout the summer.  Either way, we can sympathize with the desire to get some fresh greens into our diet!