My understanding is that chard is slightly different than beet greens. Having Ukrainian heritage, I have eaten my fair share of borsht and pickled beets. The rooe is a little too sweet for my taste but I love boiled beets greens and butter. But my son loves beet root and so I figure now I should start buying the root more often and make some brine pickles. We'd both love that. You can get chard in the store without the root but beet greens on their own are harder to come by. Love also that idea of pickling the stems ... a beer fermentation maybe???
As always a fabulously entertaining and educational post:):):) You rock:)
The chard greens definitely have a different consistency than regular beet greens. The chard is officially Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris, Cicla-Group and Flavescens-Group - while Beets are just Beta vulgaris. I like beet greens, too. It's kind of like the Wild Field Mustard (Brassica rapa) that has been bred into Bok Choy, Napa Cabbage, Rapini broccoli, and Turnips! That's a wide variety.
Those stalks would be good in the same mix as I use for Pickled Hop Shoots, for sure! I like them for Bread and Butter Pickles, too. I hope you can find some beet greens! But in their absence, the younger leaves of chard are more like beets than the bigger, older leaves.
Thank you, HH:)