Swiss Chard Going to Seed

A few weeks ago I wrote about the Rainbow Swiss Chard that we were growing.  Here's a link to that post.

http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2013/03/rainbow-swiss-chard.html

The reason it is named "Rainbow" is because the stalks of the leaves are several different colors.

Like all plants, Swiss Chard reaches a point in its life cycle where it produces seed.  In order to do this, the plant sends up a long stem called a "flower spike".  It looks like this.

At the top of the stalk is where the flowers grow.

These will eventually produce seed and the plant's life cycle begins all over again.  

I plan to let one of the red and one of the yellow plants go to seed, harvest the seed and plant it again next year.  I want to begin saving more seed from plants that we grow ourselves.  There are 2 reasons I want to do this.  First, the plants grown from saved seed will be more adapted to our soil and climate than those grown from seed produced elsewhere.  And, second, the seed we save ourselves will be FREE!