Last spring I let my lettuce bolt. (That is, go to seed.) I didn’t think too much about it at the time. Then, last October, little seedlings started popping up all over my yard. I couldn’t identify the plant based on the seed-leaves. Because I’m strange and curious that way, I let them grow. They turned out to be red leaf lettuce. Next thing I knew, this happened:
Liz’s Lettuce
My very own lettuce farm! Granted, 60 lettuce plants is too many lettuce plants for one or two or four people to keep up with. No one can eat that much salad.
But there’s nothing like lettuce fresh from the garden. Even Farmer’s Market lettuces can’t compete. The true freshness that comes from picking the tender leaves, then eating them within an hour, cannot be replicated. Nor, for some reason, can the taste of homegrown lettuce. Maybe it’s the varieties I plant, but my red leaf, butter lettuce, and odd red heading lettuces taste so good. Much more flavor than anything I’ve ever bought.
Here in the Bay Area, lettuce season is coming to an end. You might be able to put in a few starts from the nursery and keep them from bolting for 3-6 weeks at best. I won’t be planting any new lettuces until October. But if you live in a cooler clime, now might be the perfect time to plant lettuce! For in-ground planting, be sure all danger of hard frost is past. Plant leaf lettuces now for a gradual harvest through May or even June. Yum!
If you’ve got leaf lettuces, you can harvest them a few leaves at a time. Pick the outermost leaves once they’ve grown to at least 4 inches across. This won’t hurt the plants; in fact I find that it encourages my lettuce to grow more vigorously.
Now I’m all hungry. Salad for dinner!
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