Picked about six large clumps of Swiss chard this afternoon. Stripped
the leaves off and into bite sizes after shaking most of the raised bed
mix off the roots. These things had leaves over two feet long and at
least six inches wide and were still tender.

Rinsed the leaf bits several times through a strainer, then brought the
big pot to a rolling boil and dipped them in for three minutes. Drained
the insert strainer, then put the chopped leaves into an ice bath for
another three minutes, then put them back into the strainer to drip dry.
I was thinking this was going to be a BIG batch. Turned out I got enough
for sides for four different meals. Turned the greens into patties for
two people to have a serving each at a meal. The chard patties are in
the freezer for 20 minutes and then will be vacuum bagged and tagged.

Next step will be tomorrow, if it doesn't rain very hard as expected.
Pull the last of them up and do it all over again. Already pulled the
sweet green pea vines, and the sweet pea (flower) vines along the fence
will go then too. All that stuff will be chopped with the machete and
into the compost barrel along with the weekly accumulation of
compostable stuff from the kitchen.

Checked the worm house today, didn't see nary a worm. Will check again
tomorrow and then probably buy worms from someone other than the local
guy. Followed all the rules that came with the worm house and did due
diligence so wondering what happened in there, Maybe a worm war? Naw, I
think they're peaceniks. <G>

George