Trialling 4 chards as spinach substitute

[jmsieglaff]

Everyone in our house loves fresh spinach. The problem is spring spinach harvest is done in a blink of an eye, I have consistently failed at fall spinach (the only thing I haven't tried is starting plants and setting them out) not to mention the impossibility of growing spinach during the summer.

So in 2018 I'm trialling 4 different types of Swiss chard to see if one (or maybe more) standout as the best spinach substitute--specifically for eating raw as the bulk of a salad. As such I plan on planting densely and routinely harvesting leaves while small. In the past I've grown Rainbow swiss chard--I would not consider it an acceptable spinach substitute.

The varieties to be trialled include (all from Baker Creek):
Barese
Bionda Di Lyon
Perpetual Spinach
Verde De Taglio

I welcome any experience any of you have had with these varieties!