Nutritious chard's brightly colored stalks add a pop of color to the plate, shown here in red, yellow and white. Photo by Esther Oertel.

Chard’s deep green leaves are exquisitely laced with colorful veins, as though the fronds were crafted by a skilled artisan.

Each ruffled leaf – tasting similar to spinach, but with a tangy, earthy flavor – is a veritable fount of nutrition and the bright stems of some cultivars add a pop of color to the plate.

If not a colored variety, chard has silvery white celery-like stalks. Ruby and rhubarb chard have red stems and veins. Rainbow chard comes in an endless variety of colors, including yellow, pink, orange, red, purple and a number of striped versions. Another colorful chard goes by the name bright lights.

In general, colored chard is slightly less tender than those with white stems.

If you like to garden, colorful chard varieties make wonderful landscaping plants with the added bonus that they may be harvested for eating.

Chard goes by a number of aliases, including Swiss chard (a moniker designed to provide differentiation from its French spinach cousins in 19th century seed catalogs), silverbeet, perpetual spinach, spinach beet, crab beet, seakale beet and mangold.

Along with modern day garden beets, chard is one of the cultivated descendants of the sea beet, also known as wild spinach, a vegetable that grew naturally along European shorelines. The family resemblance between chard and beets is apparent in that they share similar foliage and coloration; one can see that they share a common ancestor.

Though, as its nickname implies, chard is grown in northern European countries such as Switzerland, it has its roots in the Mediterranean region. The French, Italians, Spaniards, Greeks and the Arabs of North Africa have made the most of this vegetable in their cuisines.

Chard’s history in cuisine is long; it goes back before the Roman and Greek civilizations to ancient Babylon.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote about chard in the fourth century B.C. and both the Greeks and Romans prized the vegetable for its medicinal qualities.

As to nutrition, according to the “World’s Healthiest Foods” Web site (www.whfoods.org), chard is an excellent source of bone-building vitamin K, manganese, and magnesium; antioxidant vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E; heart-healthy potassium and dietary fiber; and energy-producing iron.

It’s a very good source of bone-healthy copper and calcium; energy-producing vitamin B2 and vitamin B6; and muscle-building protein. In addition, chard is a good source of energy-producing phosphorus, vitamin B1, vitamin B5, biotin, and niacin; immune supportive zinc; and heart-healthy folate.

One can understand why the Greeks and Romans thought it to be powerful medicinally!

Chard is ready to harvest in late spring or early summer and will continue to produce stalks until November or the first hard frost. In areas with mild winters, chard produces its best growth and highest yields during those months.

Chard that is harvested while young and tender may be added raw to salad greens. As the leaves mature, they become tougher and develop a somewhat bitter taste, which is neutralized through cooking.

The stems are tougher than the leaves and require a longer cooking time, so they should be added first to the sauté pan or soup pot. For example, if adding to a soup or stew, allow 10 minutes to cook the stems and five to cook the leaves.

If using stems and leaves in separate applications, the stems may be prepared and used like asparagus and the leaves like spinach.

Chard is best stored in a loosely sealed plastic bag in the fridge where it will keep well for three to five days. Shake off any excess water from supermarket sprays prior to storing.

When shopping for chard, look for stems that are crisp, not limp, and for leaves with a glossy shine.

The red veins in this chard leaf contrast beautifully with the deep green of the foliage. Photo by Esther Oertel.

Chard makes a wonderful component for quiche, especially when paired with cheeses such as Fontina, Gruyere or Parmesan.

I especially enjoy it sautéed in a simple fashion with olive oil, onions and garlic until tender, cooking the diced stems first with the onions and adding the chopped leaves later with the garlic.

Chef Rick Bayless, owner of two fine dining Mexican restaurants in Chicago, pairs chard with poblano peppers to make a creative take on tacos with creamy braised chard.

British chef, author and television personality, Jamie Oliver, uses chard atop pizza, as well as pairing it with lamp chops and creamy cannelloni beans for a main dish.

Beans and lentils are a good match for chard, whether served side by side as Chef Oliver does, or added to a soup or stew.

The recipe I offer today is one by Deborah Madison, founding chef of Greens, a popular vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco. It’s from her book “Local Flavors,” which features recipes using seasonal farmers’ market produce.

I shared this recipe with students in a cooking class last year using local produce. It was a lot of fun to make, impressive to serve and we all thought it tasted good. I hope you enjoy it.

Chard and cilantro soup with noodle nests

The noodle nests

2 eggs, separated

3 ounces (1 ¾ cups) fine egg noodles, such as capellini, uncooked

1/3 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Sea salt

Peanut oil for frying

Beat the egg whites until they hold firm peaks, then stir in the yolks, noodles, cheese, and cilantro. Season with a few pinches of salt, then really work the mixture with your hands or a wooden spoon so that it’s more or less homogenous. It will look impossibly dry and stiff.

Heat enough oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat to float the noodles, at least 1/3 inch. When the oil’s hot, drop the batter into it, dividing the batter into 4 or 6 portions by eye.

Fry until golden, about 1 minute, then turn and fry the second side another minute. Set aside on paper towels. These can be made hours ahead of time.

The soup

1 tablespoons olive oil

2 bunches scallions, including an inch or 2 of the greens, finely chopped

1 celery rib, diced

1 cup finely chopped cilantro stems and leaves, packed

Leaves from 1 bunch chard, green or rainbow, about 6 cups, packed

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 cups vegetable stock, chicken stock or water

Cilantro sprigs for garnish

Warm the oil in a soup pot. Add the scallions and celery and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. After a few minutes, add the cilantro and ½ cup water so that the vegetables stew rather than fry. Add the chard leaves, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt, then cover and cook until the chard has wilted down. Add the stock or water.

Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and add the noodle nests to the pot. Simmer until the chard is tender, about 10 minutes. Taste for salt and season with pepper.

Ladle the soup into soup plates or bowls, include a noodle nest in each bowl, and serve garnished with a sprig of cilantro.

Esther Oertel, the “Veggie Girl,” is a culinary coach and educator and is passionate about local produce. Oertel teaches culinary classes at Chic Le Chef in Hidden Valley Lake, Calif., and The Kitchen Gallery in Lakeport, Calif., and gives private cooking lessons. She welcomes your questions and comments; e-mail her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Anderson Marsh State Historic Park is back on a proposed closure list released by state officials on Friday, May 13, 2011. Courtesy photo.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – On Friday, the state announced a proposal to close 70 state parks, with the list topped by Anderson Marsh State Historic Park in Lower Lake.

The California State Parks Department said Friday that the closures are necessary to achieve an $11 million reduction in the 2011-12 fiscal year and $22 million in fiscal year 2012-13.

The cuts were mandated by AB 95, passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in March, state officials said.

“We regret closing any park, but with the proposed budget reductions over the next two years, we can no longer afford to operate all parks within the system,” said California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman.

The 70 parks slated for closure out of a total of 278 were selected based on a variety of factors, officials said.

The closure methodology's three primary goals, according to the State Parks Department, included protecting the most significant natural and cultural resources, maintaining public access and revenue generation to the greatest extent possible, and protecting closed parks so that they remain attractive and usable for potential partners. The methodology was part of AB 95.

“Closing state parks is not a task that gives anyone joy, but we are experiencing turbulent times that necessitate deep – almost unthinkable – cuts to public services,” Gov. Jerry Brown said in a Friday statement released by his office. “I will work hard in the coming weeks to reach an agreement that will allow us to avoid deeper and more disruptive reductions.”

Anderson Marsh is the home of the Old Time Bluegrass Festival, which takes place each September as a fundraiser for local schools.

Lake County News was not able to reach representatives of the Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association for comment on Friday evening.

This is the third time since 2008 that Anderson Marsh has been included on a proposed park closure list. Each time volunteers and supporters have campaigned strenuously against the proposal.

The park, run mostly by volunteers, was estimated in a 2008 California State Parks Foundation report to be visited by more than 43,000 people annually, generating just over $2,000 in revenue each year.

Clear Lake State Park also had been included on a proposed 2008 closure list. Since then it has not been listed, as its revenue numbers are well over $300,000 annually with more than 100,000 yearly visitors.

Coleman, who visited Lake County April 2 for the dedication of the new Clear Lake State Park Education Pavilion – an effort spearheaded by the Clear Lake State Park Interpretive Association – said that the partnership between the state and the interpretive association “is the reason this park is still open,” as Lake County News has reported.

The California State Parks Foundation said Friday that it strongly opposes the proposed closures, which would constitute 25 percent of the entire park system and 40 percent of the state's historic parks, and affect parks in 36 of the state's 58 counties.

“Although park closures have been threatened before, this constitutes the first time in the 100 year history of California state parks that a serious, deliberate effort has been made to significantly reduce the state parks system,” said California State Parks Foundation President Elizabeth Goldstein. “The message to our children and grandchildren is that we can’t save their natural and historic legacy. They can no longer expect to have access to a public trust resource that should, by all rights, be theirs.”

Goldstein added that the proposal “shuts the door to a vital part of our economy. Closing these parks is going in the wrong direction.”

The list of parks proposed for closure around Northern California include Henry W. Coe State Park in Santa Clara County, which is the second largest state park in the entire state park system and the largest in northern part of the state; Annadel State Park and Jack London State Historic Park, the home of the native author and adventurer, in Sonoma County; Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park in Napa County; Benbow Lake State Recreation Area, Grizzly Creek Redwoods and Fort Humboldt State Historic Park in Humboldt County; Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park in Chico; Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park in Del Norte County; the Governor's Mansion State Historic Park in Sacramento; William B. Ide Adobe State Historic Park and Woodson Bridge State Recreation Area in Tehama County; and Point Cabrillo Light Station and Jug Handle State Natural Reserve in Mendocino County.

Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Tuolumne County, which the parks foundation said has served as a backdrop for more than 200 films, also was listed.

The State Parks Department said among the 208 parks that would remain open, the closure plan would preserve 92 percent of current attendance and 94 percent of existing revenues.

“With this announcement, we can begin to seek additional partnership agreements to keep open as many parks as possible,” said Coleman. “We already have 32 operating agreements with our partners – cities, counties and nonprofits – to operate state parks, and will be working statewide to expand that

successful template.”

However, the California State Parks Foundation said it questioned the state's ability to effectively close the parks proposed for closure.

Parks with nominal staffing already suffer vandalism, and the group said that fully shutting down

state parks will only make matters worse, and will threaten the preservation of vital resources.

The group invites community members to join its Save Our State Parks Campaign at www.savestateparks.org/ .

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

On Thursday, May 12, 2011, a jury convicted Christopher Sanders, 30, of Clearlake of several felony counts related to the sexual abuse of his young stepdaughter. Lake County Jail photo.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Clearlake man is facing up to 35 years in prison after a jury convicted him on Thursday of five felony counts relating to the molestation of his stepdaughter.

The jury returned the conviction on Christopher Adam Sanders, 30, whose trial began on April 20 before Judge Stephen Hedstrom in the Lake County Superior Court's Clearlake Division, according to Deputy District Attorney Edward Borg.

Sanders' attorney, Chris Andrian of Santa Rosa, did not return a call seeking comment.

Borg said the jury deliberated only a short time before finding Sanders guilty on all five charges against him, which included a lewd act with a child, two counts of lewd act with a child by duress, continuous sexual abuse of a child and statutory rape.

“It really didn't take much more than an hour for us to return a verdict,” said Esther Oertel, one of the trial's jurors who also writes the weekly “Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News.

“The jurors were all agreed pretty quickly,” she said.

During trial testimony, Sanders was alleged to have begun sexually assaulting his stepdaughter late in the summer of 2005, when she was 11 years old, Borg said.

Sanders reportedly told the child that if she reported the abuse she would be the one to get into trouble, and that she would be taken away from her mother and never see her mother again, according to Borg.

Borg said the sexual assault was alleged to have continued on a repeated basis until December 2008, when the victim was 15 years old.

The abuse came to light on Jan. 4, 2009, after the young victim had a conversation with a friend who also had been sexually assaulted. Borg said the girl then reported the ongoing abuse to her mother.

The abuse subsequently was reported to the Clearlake Police Department. Borg said then-Det. Tim Hobbs – since promoted to sergeant – led the investigation, which resulted in Sanders' arrest shortly after midnight on Jan. 5, 2009.

During an interview after his arrest, Sanders – who Borg said had been fully advised of his rights – admitted to investigators he had multiple sexual contacts with his stepdaughter, but claimed she had initiated the encounters.

At trial, Roberta Bell, a registered nurse who performed a forensic examination of the victim, testified that she observed abnormal findings which were consistent with the history of sexual abuse the girl described, Borg said.

According to Borg, District Attorney’s Victim Witness Department Victim Advocate Crystal Martin provided support to the girl throughout the trial, and District Attorney Investigator Von McPherson also participated in the investigation.

Borg said the trial had been delayed by about a week due to an initial juror shortage, but added, “Generally speaking, it went pretty smoothly.”

He said Sanders' family showed up to support him throughout the trial, and there were tensions and hard feelings between them and the family of the victim.

Out of concern that those tensions might turn into hostility during the verdict reading Thursday, Borg said Judge Hedstrom had requested extra deputies be on standby.

However, “Nothing much really happened,” said Borg, noting the bailiff was able to keep order.

Oertel said the six-man, six-woman jury – which ranged in age from a young woman in her 20s to a woman in her 60s – took their charge “very, very seriously,” and she was impressed by how hard they worked to reach a verdict.

“While it was a difficult trial to sit through because of the subject matter, we feel justice was done,” Oertel said.

Following the verdict, Sanders was taken into custody and booked into the Lake County Jail, Borg said.

Because of the nature of the charges, Borg said Sanders won't be eligible for probation.

Borg said Sanders will face between 15 and 35 years in prison when he appears before Hedstrom for sentencing at 1:15 p.m. July 1. Lake County Probation will prepare a report with sentencing recommendations.

Sanders will have to serve 85 percent of whatever sentence Hedstrom gives him because four of the five counts he's been convicted of are violent felonies, said Borg.

Borg said the District Attorney’s Office commended the girl for her courage in coming forward and testifying in open court regarding Sanders' abuses.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

Michael Mitchell was arrested on several drug-related charges following the service of a search warrant at his home in Clearlake, Calif., on Thursday, May 12, 2011. Lake County Jail photo.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Clearlake man who is the focus of several ongoing criminal cases has been arrested on drug-related charges following a search of his home this week.

On Thursday, May 12, Clearlake Police officers served a search warrant at the 19^th Avenue home of Michael Tremell Mitchell, 25, according to a report from Sgt. Tim Hobbs.

Hobbs said Officer Travis Lenz – one of two officers assigned to the Community Oriented Policing beat in which Mitchell’s residence is located – has taken numerous complaints in the past several months regarding allegations of disturbances and illegal sales of narcotics and controlled substances at Mitchell’s residence.

Court records show that Mitchell has 11 active criminal cases currently, and is named in a wrongful death civil suit regarding the November 2005 shooting death of Eric Moss, an incident which occurred during a house party. A criminal prosecution has so far not been filed in the case.

On May 2, Mitchell was arrested for allegedly being a felon in possession of a firearm, a restrained person in a restraining order in possession of a firearm and possession of a concealed firearm in a vehicle, Hobbs said.

Based on that May 2 arrest, Lenz obtained a search warrant that authorized a search of Mitchell and his residence for firearm-related items, Hobbs said.

During the search no firearm related items were located, however Hobbs said large amounts of marijuana, methamphetamine, ecstasy, drug paraphernalia, scales, packaging material and a deadly weapon – a billy club – were located.

Det. Ryan Peterson, who Hobbs said was assisting Lenz with the search, obtained an additional search warrant that authorized the seizure of marijuana, methamphetamine, ecstasy, drug paraphernalia, scales, packaging material and deadly weapon.

Mitchell was booked into the Lake County Jail for possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine), possession of a controlled substance (ecstasy), possession of marijuana for sales, cultivation of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, Hobbs said.

A bail enhancement to $250,000 was obtained on Mitchell, who remained in the Lake County Jail on Saturday.

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The sunrise ceremony will begin at 5 a.m. near the Bloody Island site, located off of Reclamation Road near the Bloody Island marker, a mile and a half east of Upper Lake. Drive a quarter of a mile down Reclamation Road and park on the roadside.

Organizers say the event is held to honor the Pomo Indian people who were killed by US Army forces in May of 1850.

The massacre was in retaliation for the December 1849 murders, on the other side of the lake in what is now Kelseyville, of Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone, who had brutalized local Indians.

According to historical accounts, some of those Indians fled to the Bloody Island area – known as “old island” or Badon-napo-ti – which was the site of an established village.

Captain Nathaniel Lyon led a US Army company to Lake County in the spring of 1850 to punish Chief Augustine's band of Pomos for Stone's and Kelsey's deaths.

They didn't find the band in Big Valley, and then traveled to Upper Lake, where they found and attacked the band at Bloody Island using whaleboats and two small brass cannons from the Benicia Army arsenal, according to historians.

The estimated number of casualties is between 60 and 100, based on varying accounts.

The Saturday ceremony will be followed by a potluck breakfast with speakers and dancers at the Oddfellows Hall in downtown Upper Lake.

The community also is invited to participate in an all-night campout and dancing ceremony on Friday, May 13. Meals will be served at 6 p.m. and midnight, with a fire at 9 p.m. To get to the camp area, enter Robinson Rancheria on Pomo Way, go to end of road and turn left

Following the Saturday events, dancing at rancheria will continue from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.

For more information, to donate or to be part of the agenda, contact Clayton Duncan at 707-274-6788 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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