As usual the weather has been unpredictable - a very warm spell lulled us into a false sense of security, followed by a bitterly cold snap with below freezing temps in the middle of April. However my brilliant Lower School gardeners have done their very best and it was been wonderful to get outside over the past couple of weeks (before all this relentless rain) to plant some new and interesting vegetables like dill and rainbow swiss chard as well as some old favorites like radishes and lettuce. I am happy to report that seedlings are sprouting beautifully.
We all learnt that swiss chard is actually a relative of the beetroot family and that we eat the leaves as we would spinach leaves and the stalks as we would asparagus. The reason it's called swiss chard is a mystery but apparently it has nothing to do with Switzerland!