Vegetable
Fordhook Giant
S tier
Fordhook Giant is a white-stemmed workhorse chard with huge, crumpled dark green leaves and thick white midribs—the classic American large chard. Flavour is robust mild beet-green; stems are meaty for braising. Heavy yields for cooking greens. Cook stems first, then leaves; excellent for large pans of greens. Burpee-era fame made it a garden legend. Not about rainbow colour—about volume and reliability.
Track this ingredient
Unit
Characteristics
Preparations
Bulk Greens PanFreezer BlanchGratin RibSoup PotStem First Braise
Traits
American ClassicClassic USDark Crumpled LeafGiant LeafHeavy YieldHuge White StemProductiveWhite Rib
History
US
Fordhook Giant chard was introduced via Burpee’s Fordhook breeding fame.
US
US gardens standardised on Fordhook Giant for bulk greens.
It remained the white-stem giant chard reference.
Seed savers and catalogues still led with Fordhook Giant.