Thanks everyone for your responses. Fordhook Giant was one that I was considering growing, I am so happy to hear that you believe the leaf minors do not bother it as much. My guess is that the fact that Foodhook Giant grows fast probably helps against the leaf minors. Last year I had big problems with leaf minors. Wiped out all my beets and swiss chard. I have never had a problem with leaf minors destroying my beets before, always got almost perfect leaves. Last year was the first time I tried growing swiss chard (Bright Lights), and they did not even have a chance because of the leaf minors. I am hoping to get a hoop house up in the spring that I can grow my greens in to protect them from leaf minors and flea beetles (which I have always had problems with). I think I may have been planing on ordering the Perpetual Spinach / Leaf Beet, not sure though. I know I did read about that somewhere. I am going to have to do some research on all the other varieties everyone mentioned, they all sound very interesting. Thanks again everyone, now I am off to look up all the different types mentioned.

Experiment. Try a number of different kinds and colors and decide for yourself which is best. I go through stages, and right now I'm rather fond of Lucullus. One could argue that the various colored chards may provide more anti-oxident value, but for pure flavor Lucullus is hard to beat. I've had marginal production from bright lights, but everything else seems to grow like weeds. Fordhook Giant is tasty and truly lives up to its name.

Cavelo nero 'palm tree de toscana'. Really do look like a palm tree... the 'trunks' on mine got to about five feet Very dark green/blue heavily savoyed leaves. Can be cooked for a long time; I stew it with olive oil and garlic.

your french swiss chard (weird) is doing really well in my garden--better, maybe, than the seafoam, tho i really love the look of the seafoam. in the spring, when the snails come out, i've found that the savoy texture (crinkle) discourages the snails. the seafoam, when cooked, is indistinguishable from other chards. it darkens. ftlmom, chard is everything that spinach is, only it tastes good. christine--this is our house staple for chard. it is just fabulous, and if you're good at pastry (as my wife is), you can throw it together in a matter of minutes. Here is a link that might be useful: chard pie