The Perfect Time for Fresh Leaf Lettuce

I grew up eating head lettuce, Iceberg, to be specific.  There's nothing wrong with iceberg lettuce.  The CRUNCH of iceberg lettuce is something I look forward to when eating a salad.  However, for years we've been growing an assortment of different types of leaf lettuces and leaf lettuce mixes.  While they don't have the "crunch" of iceberg lettuce, the different colors and the variation in shapes and sizes of leaf lettuce yields a rich dividend to your salad bowl.

Right now, the weather is perfect for fresh lettuce.  It has cooled down so the pressure from bugs and worms has finally lightened up.  The cooler temps have also slowed the growth of the lettuce.  When it warms up, the lettuce grows so fast, it quickly bolts to flowering and becomes bitter tasting.  The lettuce we have been harvesting daily has been sweet, tender, and colorful.  We have so much lettuce, we couldn't possibly eat it all!  Lettuce seeds are so small and that tempts me to always plant too many.

Let's look at some of the lettuce on the lettuce row.  The first is a nice red romaine.

Next we have an Oak Leaf Lettuce.  You can see that it is aptly named.

The next three varieties are different types that are in a salad mix that I plant:

I like the way this one looks.  I call it 'freckled lettuce.'

This one is brightly colored.  It also has a crunch to it, although not as much as iceberg.

On my way out, I walked down the Sugar Snap Pea trellis.  These sweet peas are very sweet.  I like to eat them raw while I'm standing there.  Tricia also stir fries these up.  They are delicious in fried rice.  With the sun in the background, it almost appears like this is an X-ray.

We'll continue eating salads daily, while the freezing weather holds off.  Even when it freezes, I'll attempt to cover them to see if I can save them.