Becoming The Muse

Coffee With Chad

If you were having coffee with me, I would welcome you to my tangle of words. Feel at home, have some, iced water or unless you prefer iced coffee or iced tea… maybe you prefer it boiling hot, regardless of the weather. The heat outside is a killer, I hope its not because the rapture already happened and we are the leftovers in a boot camp for hell… Stay hydrated.

I still cant wrap my head around how almost everyone here, wrongly identifies this vegetable. Recently, I came across the information that what most people in this country refer to as spinach is actually chard or swiss chard. 🤯

Despite the two vegetables being somewhat similar chard and spinach are so distinctive that one shouldn’t have any problems distinguishing them, yet here we are. Chard (Beta vulgaris) has broad, dark green leaves and crunchy stems, while spinach (Spinacia oleracea) features smooth, tender leaves.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that part of the reason behind this is regional, in America its known as Swiss Chard, while in British English it has been referred to as ‘perptual spinach’ partly due to its looks and taste similarity to spinach and how you can get a continuous harvest as well as its resilience to warm temperatures, unlike true chard which which bolts (i.e. goes to seed) quickly under hot conditions.

I cannot vouch for the similarity in taste as I am still coming to terms with that my whole life is a lie and I have never tasted real spinach, as kids mum used to encourage us to eat our spinach so we could grow big and strong like Popeye the sailor-man. Now I know why it didn’t work, I mean yes it worked in that it got us to eat our greens but then I didn’t grow up built like Popeye, probably because it wasn’t real spinach.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that Swiss Chard is in the same family as beet root which is why its also known as Silverbeet with a reddish variety known as Spinach Beet. The British influence in our history is likely the reason behind our calling this vegetable spinach.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that this habit of simply following conventions that were imposed upon us without actually basing them on our indigenous knowledge systems and cultures could be why the version of democracy that we have, never quite works despite seemingly best intentions or the dreams sold by politicians in their bid to win elections and acquire expensive cars.

Whenever there’s a choice between getting new vehicle and making actual improvements for citizens, the choice is always the same. The City of Harare which has been grilled for spending 1 million to buy 12 Toyota Fortuners for its executives once again came under spotlight after the city council received 17 vehicles from Helcraw PVT LTD as part of a project to boost water production and delivery for the city’s residents… Maybe the cars will help carry buckets of water to places which currently don’t have a source of clean constant water….

Meanwhile on the continent, the Kenyan president announced that he has a bold plan to turn around the country in 30 years, a noble quest, but the question everyone has, is if that means he intends to remain president till 2055…  

Then there is Madagascar which has a volatile situation that escalated from controversial arrests, to a youth led protest movement and calls for the president’s resignation, to what might very well be a coup situation in progress…

Meanwhile back home, the infamous former war veteran Blessed Geza Comrade Bombshell resurfaced with yet another YouTube video in which he declared that the time for silence is over and called for a peaceful protest on the 17^th of October.

Despite the challenges, its still a pleasant country to visit with travel experts listing it as one of the best countries to visit in 2025 in Forbes magazine.

So whats been happening in your neck of the woods? Ever been confused between chard and spinach?

~B