I Love Lettuce
I’ve been sorting through all of my seeds and entering them all into a database where I can keep track of seeding dates, germination, notes about harvest and flavor. I must say that I’ve acquired quite an assortment of seeds over the past couple years. I have a few varieties of many different things like broccoli and cabbage. I thought tomatoes would take the prize for most variety of seeds with about 20 different kinds in my box. But, I was surprised to see that lettuce/greens took the prize, I actually have 3 folders full of lettuce, spinach and other greens.
I do love lettuce and who can resist all the lovely colors and shapes in the seed catalogs. I do grow a lot of lettuce and greens each spring and fall, and we do eat a lot of salads. Lettuce is a great vegetable to grow yourself because it doesn’t take up much space, it matures quickly, is pretty adaptable to most kinds of soil and can be grown easily in pots. The seeds germinate easily and grow quickly, so it’s a perfect thing for first time seed starters and gardeners. Even though I have tons of lettuce seeds in my collection I’ll still be adding a few more this year, including that ‘Roxy’ lettuce I bought at my local farmer’s market and loved.
The varieties in my seed box:
Arugula – regular
Arugula – wild
Arugula – ‘Even Star Winter’
Kale – ‘Lacinato’
Kale – ‘Lacinato Rainbow Mix’
Kale – ‘Red Russian’
Spinach – ‘Winter Bloomsdale’
Spinach – ‘Catalina’
Spinach – ‘Bloomsdale Longstanding’
Spinach – ‘Tyee’
Spinach – ‘Giant Winter’
Swiss Chard – ‘Multicolor Bright Lights’
Lettuce – ‘Rocky Top’
Lettuce – ‘Black Seeded Simpson’
Lettuce – ‘Red Sails’
Lettuce – ‘Simpson Elite’
Lettuce – ‘Jericho Romaine’
Lettuce – ‘Rouge Grenobloise’
Lettuce – ‘Sanquine Ameliore’
Lettuce – ‘Sea of Red’
Lettuce – ‘Little Gem’
Lettuce – ‘De Morges Braun’
Lettuce – ‘Brune D’Hiver’
Lettuce – ‘Winter Density’
Lettuce – ‘Seed Savers Mini Lettuce Mix’
Lettuce – ‘Sweetie Baby Romaine’
Greens – ‘Green Malabar’ Spinach
Greens – ‘New Zealand’ Spinach
Greens – ‘Scarlet Frills’ Mustard
Greens – ‘Fall Mix from Sand Hill’
Greens – Green Curled Endive
Greens – Minutina
Greens – ‘Tendergreen’ Mustard
Greens – Mache, corn salad
It would be hard for me to choose one type of lettuce or green to grow. I would have a really hard time deciding between spinach and arugula. I think arugula would probably win if push came to shove. There’s just something wonderful about this lovely green. It’s spicy and delicious and makes a wonderful salad, pesto and a killer BLT.
It’s also quite beautiful and ornamental when you let it go to seed. And a huge bonus for me is that the deer and ground hogs won’t eat it, so I don’t have to worry about protecting it.
I’ve always wanted to make an ornamental lettuce bed in one of my raised beds. I think this spring I’ll grow 4-5 different colors and shapes of lettuces and put them in a decorative arrangements. The only problem with that is then I’ll end up with a lot of mature lettuce to eat, I guess we’ll be eating lots of salad!
What kind of seeds do have the most varieties of?
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Learning More About Wild Food
“People simply fall in love with wild foods. Lord knows these wild things swept me away. Folks want to be seduced by their mystery, their freedom from the bonds of agriculture. Our human civilization, based on agriculture, has struggled for millennia to no longer depend on foraging in the wild. But here at the start of the twenty-first century, the old hunter-gatherer luring in all of us just won’t let go.”
Connie Green
(The Wild Table: Seasonal Foraged Food and Recipes)
I’m really enjoying reading through this book right now. Every year I try to learn a little more about wild edible food that I can forage for, they’re delicious and super healthy (and free).
We hunt for morels every spring and enjoy those thoroughly, I’d love to learn about more edible mushrooms in my area. I also harvest wild plants like plantain for salves along with dandelions, garlic mustard and wild violets for salads. We have a plentiful supply of wild blackberries close by that we freeze and enjoy all winter long.
Winter time is when I focus on learning about more wild foods that I can find in the woods around our home. I haven’t decided what new wild foods I’m going to be searching for this year, any suggestions?
Do you eat any wild foods? Where do you learn about them?
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Taste Testing Carrots
On Tuesday, Mr Chiots and I tried one of each of those carrots that I harvested on Monday. It was very interesting to be able to try so many different kinds at once. The only problem was that it was difficult to tell which was which on some of them, some of my labels had disappeared from the garden, and we didn’t keep them all separate at harvest. So I was going on shape and size based on the description on the seed packets. *note to self* I must find a better labeling pen
The ‘Muscade’ carrots were probably the best when it came to size of carrots and uniformity, they did very well. They’re a shorter fatter carrot, which are the kinds I like. The ‘Atomic Purple’ did well for size also as did one one yellow variety. The best tasting ones were probably the ‘Napli’ I grew (these are the variety Eliot Coleman calls “sugar carrots”). If you like those little baby carrots from the store you’ll love ‘Short n Sweet’ as they taste exactly the same, they’re small, sweet and very crunchy and had a great texture. The ‘Little Finger’ carrots also were great, nice and orange and with great texture.
The white ones we didn’t like much at all, and one of the yellow varieties didn’t do so well in the cold weather as the texture was off. I grew both ‘Yellowstone’ and ‘Amarillo Yellow’, I’m not sure which was which at harvest. I won’t give them the thumbs down because they might be very delicious if grown and harvested in warmer weather. I have a few seeds left so they’ll be sown this spring and we’ll test again then. I also wasn’t super impressed with ‘Chantenay Red Core’ the carrots didn’t size up as well as the other varieties and they were more difficult to peel because they were highly textured on the outside. Perhaps these are also more of a warm weather carrot.
I still have seeds left for most of these varieties so I’ll grow them again and keep better track and do a better break down for you in 6 months or so. For my fall planting I’ll definitely narrow it down to 2-3 varieties. I think trying new carrots is more for the spring/summer growing season.
Have you found a type of carrot that works well in your climate/soil/garden? Do any of you have a great labeling pen you’d like to recommend that will go the distance in the harsh weather?
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Planting Garlic
It’s that time of the year to plant garlic. I’ve read that you should plant it around fall equinox, which I missed by about a month. I received my planting garlic the day before we left on vacation and just planted it on Sunday. I ordered 2 garlic samplers from Gourmet Garlic Gardens again this year. Each year I’ve grown garlic, I’ve tried a few different method for planting. I’m hoping this year I’ll finally be able to grow nice big heads of garlic. Mine usually end up being small, but they’re still quite tasty. I chose a free-draining area of the front garden and amended the soil heavily with compost.
I used the planting method I tried 2 years ago which worked better than what I did last year. Gourmet Garlic Gardens recommends soaking your separated garlic overnight in a mixture of baking soda and fish emulsion (1 gallon of water + 1 heaping Tablespoon of baking soda + 1 Tablespoon of fish emulsion). The following day, remove garlic from this mix and soak for a few minutes in rubbing alcohol. I used this method 2 years ago and every single clove of garlic I planted sprouted into a bulb. Last year I simply planted the garlic without soaking and about 20% of the cloves I planted did not sprout. I decided I’d go with the soaking this year.
When I plant garlic, I loosen the soil about 10 inches deep. Then I measure out my plant spacing and add a teaspoon of bone meal where I want to plant each bulb (usually around 6 inches apart). I use my planting trowel and plant each bulb 4 inches deep. Then water in well and mulch with straw or leaves mixed with grass clippings. That’s it, plain and simple, the garlic will grow in the spring. What varieties of garlic am I growing this year?
Belarus is a beautiful Purple Stripe garlic with a rich garlicky flavor and is delightfully mellow but with a little bite when raw. The outer bulb wrappers are white and thick and becoming vertically striped with increasingly more purple stripes the closer to the cloves one gets. The clove covers themselves are a deep reddish purple. If you like a lot of red, you’ll love these Purple Stripe garlics. Belarus can be a very prolific garlic in cold winter areas and grows well in states with moderate temps but probably not for extreme southern areas.
Purple Glazer is one of the few Glazed Purple Stripes available and they’re fabulous garlics that grow well in most climates, although iffy in the warmest winter areas. Their bulb wrappers show a different texture than either the main group of Purple Stripes or the distinctive Marbled group. Glazed Purple Stripes are the tall willowy maidens of the garden and are usually the tallest garlics. With good growing conditions the bulbs can get very large, 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. The inner bulb wrappers of Purple Glazers can be almost solid purple with purple clove colors and they are very beautiful bulbs of very rich color and they are a lovely addition to the table centerpiece until you’re ready to eat them. If you want to flash some stark, raving color to get someone’s attention, these garlics will do the job. Purple Glazer has that same sweet warm richness of flavor common to Purple Stripe garlics; excellent for raw eating and fabulous for roasting because of the exceptional sweetness of Purple Stripe garlics. They’re more like Red Toch or Burgundy in flavor and have a very pleasant lingering aftertaste. These bulbs store every bit as long and firm as the standard Purple Stripes, around 7-8 months at room temp after harvest.
Siberian really lives up to its name when it comes to thriving in cold weather. A top-notch producer in cold climates, Siberian deserves consideration for all northern gardeners. The cloves are protected by an attractive light pink skin that becomes even redder when grown in high-iron soils. This clean, medium-to-strong flavored garlic will warm your soul on the coldest winter evening. Best of all, it is prized for having a very high allicin content, possibly the highest of any garlic. Allicin supports normal cholesterol levels, boosts the immune system, and enhances circulation. Harvests mid-late season – stores 7-9 months
German Extra Hardy is a large, beautiful and well-formed porcelain garlic. Its flavor is very strong and robust and sticks around for a long time. From a growers perspective, it is a tall dark green plant and is a very good survivor, usually grows healthy and appears to be somewhat resistant to many of the diseases that can affect garlic. It originally came from Germany but grows well in all but the most southerly states, where it is marginal. Being a Porcelain German White/ Extra Hardy stores a long time at cool room temp, around 10 months or longer.
Georgian Crystal is a large and beautiful porcelain garlic with delightfully robust flavor but not very much hotness. If you want a richly flavored, long storing Porcelain that won’t burn you out, this one’s for you. It grows well in most states even some years in warm winter areas, but will be marginal there in years with early hot summers. From a growers perspective, it is a large and healthy garlic to grow and appears to be relatively resistant to most of the diseases that can affect garlic. It originated in the Republic of Georgia, the former Soviet republic between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. An excellent garlic for raw eating and in pesto, salsa, etc. Harvests mid-summer – a rich yet mellow garlic that stores into spring at room temp.
Music is a large, beautiful and well-formed porcelain garlic similar to Northern White. Its flavor is very rich and musky, strong and robust and sticks around for a while. It’s very popular for a reason. From a growers perspective, it is a tall dark green plant and is a very good survivor, usually grows healthy and appears to be somewhat resistant to some of the diseases that can affect garlic. I’m not real sure just where Music originated, but it likes cold weather and can get quite large in good growing conditions. Grows well in most states even some years in Warm Winter Areas, but will be marginal there in years with early hot summers. Harvests mid-summer – stores into spring.
Amish Rocambole may be an heirloom garlic, who knows? (a garden plant whose lineage can be traced for a 100 years or more) It was grown in Wisconsin and comes to us from Gale Waege and Keene Organics. It is a generally a vigorous grower with large foliage that is dark green and results in a pretty good sized bulb. Being a Rocambole garlic, its flavor is very strong, hot and spicy and sticks around for a long time. From a growers perspective, it grows well in cold winter areas, but does poorly in warm winter areas, and usually grows healthy fairly uniform sized bulbs. It has thin bulb wrappers that have a lot of purple and brown in them. It usually has anywhere from 8 or 9 easy to peel cloves that are of good size, with no smaller inner cloves. The outer bulb wrappers are thin and flake off easily so it is not a very good storer, but no Rocambole is – through the fall and into winter. Great taste is their claim to fame, not long storage. For those up North who want to grow their own garlic it only takes a year or two to grow all you can eat. It harvests in early summer along with most of the other Rocamboles. Bulbs are usually over 2 1/2 inches in diameter and are of good size are grown primarily for their particularly rich flavor.
I’m excited about trying all these new varieties as I haven’t grown any of them before. I always try to grow lots of garlic as we eat a lot of it. We love garlic in all kinds of dishes, I usually use a few cloves a day. It helps keep us healthy all winter long. Here’s a great article about the health benefits of garlic.
Are you a garlic lover? Do you grow garlic in your garden?
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Fresh Greens from the Garden
I’ve been harvesting some of my fall planted veggies, mainly spinach and arugula. These two greens are my favorites, with arugula being my favorite of the two. If I had to choose only one green to eat the rest of my life it would be arugula.
There’s just something about it’s wonderful peppery complex flavor that I love. It works beautifully in salads, as a substitute for basil in pesto and it makes a marvelous BLT. No boring iceberg lettuce here at Chiot’s Run!
I like to grow heirloom arugula and collect seed from it each year to keep it going in the garden. Mine is the white blooming variety, I’ve grown the yellow blooming variety as well but I didn’t like it as much as this kind.
What’s your favorite garden green?
