Italian Silver Rib

'Italian Silver Rib' is a heirloom chard sold by Renee's Garden and selected for its midribs rather than its foliage, which reverses how most gardeners think about the crop. Italian cooks have long treated the broad white rib as a vegetable in its own right, separate from the leaf blade, and this variety delivers ribs wide and crisp enough to justify that. It builds large-framed plants that grow vigorously from spring right through late autumn, so a single spring sowing carries a household for most of the season. Renee's frames it as a cut-and-come-again crop harvested stalk by stalk rather than cut whole, which is what keeps a plant productive across that long window. Choose it over Fordhook Giant when the rib is the point and over the rainbow chards when you want substance instead of colour.