Spinach and Chard: Identifying

We grow two types of spinach, true and perpetual. True spinach is dark green and highly succulent with smaller spear- or spade-shaped leaves and thin, tender leaf stalks. Perpetual has larger, paler leaves; it is also more robust in texture and taste than true spinach, but still well worth it and a lot easier to grow.

Chard is hardier again than perpetual spinach. It has large, succulent, dark green leaves with thick fleshy stems, which can be white (Swiss chard), reddish (ruby chard), yellow or a mixture of all three (rainbow chard). Swiss chard has the best flavour, though we occasionally grow the others for colour and variety.