Friday, June 12, 2009

Lettuce for all Seasons.....and a recipe

We love that we can pick lettuce almost all season long...until it gets real hot. There are so many different kinds of lettuce and they all like different temperatures so you can almost grow it all season.

We grow a lot of Romaine lettuce because of its crunchy texture. We can grow this lettuce in the summer months. Our favorites are Apollo and Jericho.

We also like loose leaf lettuce...you just pick its outer leaves and it will keep on growing. We have had lettuce grow for months and months. I like that we can grow this in the summer months our favorite is Red Oakleaf and Salad Bowl.

My ultimate favorite lettuce is Butterhead or Buttercrunch (Yum!) It is soft green with red heads and has a buttery flavor you can grow this in early spring and summer. Cool season Capitane warm season Esmeralda.

What about Iceburg? We have tried to grow this....I think we get to warm in the spring time. We just can't get it to grow.

We plant lettuce all around our garden...we have lettuce in our potato beds around our onions ect... When it starts getting bitter we pull it up....making room for are other plants to grow. This works really well in the early season.

Here is one of my favorite Salad Dressings:

Creamy Herb

1/2 cup fat free mayonnaise

2 tablespoons and 1/2 teaspoon soymilk or fat free milk

4 teaspoons white vinegar

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 salt

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper


In a small whisk together and then chill....wonderful over fresh crisped lettuce.



Happy Gardening...

Lynn

2 comments:

Cindy - JourneytoSimplicity said...

I want to grow lettuce so bad - but I fear it is just too hot and humid down here in SW Florida this time of year. Still, I was thinking of trying some (starting indoors) out on my back patio when I get back from our family trip in mid-July.

I've got some seeds from a supposedly "slow to bolt" lettuce, so I guess that will be where I start. Does your Romaine go bitter pretty quick in the heat?

Of course, I have a nice long growing season for lettuce in the winter. We just started gardening a few months ago, so I missed the window. My tomatoes and peppers are still hanging in there, but I think the heat is getting to them too.

I enjoy reading your blog - the tips are greatly appreciated!

Knitters Notebook said...

Cindy,

As of right now we have pulled up all of our lettuce because it was getting too hot and yes they did taste bitter.

We will start lettuce again in September. We built a greenhouse last fall and we are hoping to have lettuce until it snows but we will have to wait and see:)

Lynn