Harvesting Swiss Chard Seed

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog entry about our Rainbow Swiss Chard that was going to seed.  

http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2013/06/swiss-chard-going-to-seed.html

At that time, it was pretty with the colorful stalks shooting up and standing tall.  That was on June 2. This is what it looks like now.  Not very pretty, huh?  The stalks have fallen over and are turning brown.

I pulled up all but two of the plants because I needed the space for my basil plants.  That's a basil plant on the far right.  However, I left a red and a yellow chard plant to produce seed.

When you take a closer look at the stalks, you can see the seed.  Well, these are not really the seed.  They are the seed pods.

It is funny how they grow right on the stems.  All you have to do to harvest them is to take your thumb and fore-finger and strip them off.  They come off easily.

Each pod contains several seed.  The pods are hard and the seeds inside are tiny, so I won't bother with trying to break the pods open to get the seeds.  I'll just plant the pods.  Several plants may come up from the same pod, but that is okay.  I'll just have more chard!