chard

I think my favorite garden plant this year is the Swiss Chard. It grows with abandon, even when attacked by bugs. It comes back; most of the plants I've cut to the ground and eaten a second time, one I just cut today for the third time, a full bunch of large leaves. And it provides us with food all season long. I don't think I have a single other plant that does that. Well, except maybe the herbs.

Today I opened the mesh bag in the shed and shook out all the dry seed; saved the best-looking ones.

Cut the rest off the plants outside, and hung them up to dry in the cheescloth bundle.

 I know that to have good genetic variety you should save seed from several plants; I only had two that made seed this year and hope its sufficient. There's certainly an abundance of seed! But I worry that saving seed off a plant that had been chewed by cucumber beetles might give all the following generation some nasty disease or stunt them in some way? how I hate those bugs!