Friday Favorite: ‘Roxy’ Lettuce
I’ve grown tons of different kinds of lettuce in my garden, probably around 30-40 different varieties. I’m always trying new ones because I haven’t found that perfect lettuce yet – until now. Meet ‘Roxy’ lettuce, voted by our taste buds as the best lettuce I’ve ever grown. Two years ago, I purchased tiny head of ‘Roxy’ at my farmers market – I knew I had to grow it in my own garden. This year, I finally ordered seed from High Mowing. I started seed in mid-May and transplanted them to the garden in mid-June.
Why is this lettuce voted best tasting? Because it’s crisp yet tender. The leaves have great structure in a salad, it’s a butterhead lettuce but has the great crunch of romaine. It holds dressing well, without becoming slimy like a leaf lettuce often does. It holds it’s own in a salad with few topping or many toppings. When Mr Chiots ate his first bite of this lettuce, he said “This would be great on a burger”.
Another reason to love this lettuce is that it’s very slow to bolt, even with some hot weather. We had temperatures in the high 80’s for almost a week when this lettuce was almost mature, not a hint of bitterness and no bolting yet. The description says that this lettuce “holds for a long time in the field”. It certainly does, I’ll be keeping a keen eye on it, but so far it’s nice because there’s not as much need to succession plant if the heads keep so well in the garden.
Do you have a favorite lettuce that you grow?
Filed under Friday Favorites | Comments (3)
Red Salad Bowl. Looks similar but it’s a leaf lettuce.
Do you harvest the whole head at once or cut off what you need? Looks dee-lish. We’ll have to look into this one for fall planting.
to daisy's comment
I’ve been harvesting the entire head since I have so many growing in the garden.
to Susy's comment
Sounds great, I’ll try it next year! I love to grow merlot just because it’s so beautiful. Other than that, no favorites – I plant various kinds plus Johnny’s Encore mix, and often let some go to seed and eat whatever comes up (which is probably hybridized at that point) next year. I have stray heads coming up all over my garden. Sometimes I’ll leave them where they are if they’re not in the way and sometimes I’ll transplant them.
to Joan's comment