“To grow baby lettuces using my methods, it’s critical to start with optimum exposure and weather conditions and, most important of all, very rich soil. At the gardens I work with, we place a premium on compost, making it as rich as possible by composting continually and digging in at regular intervals. Three times a year we add soil amendments: blood meal and bonemeal or cottonseed meal. I think organic soil amendments are best for growing anything—particularly lettuces, because lettuce can be very bitter if not grown in rich, humusy soil. We never have bitter lettuce because we use so much organic matter—and because the weather never gets very hot in my garden.
“The only pests we have are aphids and slugs. For the aphids we use an insecticidal soap. Slugs aren’t a problem most of the year because we’re there all the time to control them, but when they’re really active, we use slug bait on the perimeter of the garden, never touching the food plants.
“For our intensive method of growing lettuce, we don’t let plants get much bigger than three or four inches tall. When we sow the seeds, we space them about a quarter inch apart; then we never thin them. Because we pick them so fast and so often, we never have crowding problems as we would if we just left them to choke themselves and eventually self-thin.
“Optimum exposure and weather conditions are also essential to producing the best baby lettuce, so we take care to protect the plants in all weather. In cold weather we create tunnels of clear plastic film spread over PVC [polyvinyl chloride] tubing hoops; the plastic is attached to the hoops with giant plastic clips available from plumbing-supply houses. In warm summer weather we shade the beds with commercial shade cloth. Of course, winter weather doesn’t drop much below thirty degrees in either Berkeley or Los Angeles, and our summers are mild, but in cold-winter areas you could do the same thing in a greenhouse or cold frame.
“Because we produce so much lettuce for the restaurants, I’ve decided through the years against scissor-cutting; leaf-picking is easier on plants because the plants regenerate faster that way. We pick only the biggest leaves, which are still only two to three inches long, and leave the crowns to produce new leaves.
“Home gardeners can choose whichever method appeals to them, though. If you prefer the cut-and-come-again method of harvesting, take a knife or scissors and just go snip, snip across the plant about an inch or two above the crown. This won’t kill the plant, because enough energy and growing information is left in the crown for it to produce new leaves. New growth will occur in a short time if the weather is right—not too cold or too hot. Cut as much as you need and then separate the damaged leaves from the good ones. Scissor-cutting is great for home gardeners because it’s fast, but we leaf-pick each plant for restaurants and sort as we go so only the perfect leaves end up in the tub.
“Washing is an important part of the final presentation. Put the lettuce leaves in a sink filled with water, gently slosh them up and down, and then spin several turns in a salad spinner until the leaves are quite dry. It’s important to dry baby lettuces thoroughly because they’ll collapse under the weight of any water left on them. Put the leaves between damp towels and refrigerate immediately. Later, be careful to dress them very lightly with a delicate oil-and-vinegar mixture so they won’t sag under the weight of a heavy dressing.”
When asked which lettuce varieties she prefers most, Andrea said, “I think all varieties are interesting. There are all kinds of lettuces, and they’re fun to grow because they all look and taste slightly different. I’ve decided that the final product depends not as much on which varieties you choose as on how you grow them. There’s no such thing as a bad lettuce or a terrific lettuce; it’s entirely personal. Aesthetics are important; color, taste, and texture depend on what you want. If you like smooth, buttery, tender lettuces, go with ‘Limestone’ and ‘Bibb’ lettuces. For something slightly more crunchy and succulent, try the Batavians. Finally, in general, the reds may be a little more strongly flavored than the greens. All in all, it’s entirely up to your individual taste.”
harvesting from the salad garden
Salad greens may be harvested in many ways. The differences are dictated by the age of the plant, the method used to grow it, and the variety. Let’s first look at the different stages of a salad green’s life and see how to harvest each one. When you start seeds for most greens, you need to plant extra to make sure you have a full flat or bed of greens. Generally many more plants sprout than will fit in a mature bed, and selected baby plants need to be pulled out to prevent overcrowding. This process is called thinning. Once your plants have three or four leaves, you can thin them by cutting the baby plants off at soil level, or just pull the entire plant out of the ground. (This applies to some other vegetable seedlings besides salad greens too. Thinnings of beets, radishes, turnips, scallions, and peas are also good salad material.) Simply remove the root end, wash the baby plants, and add them to a mixed salad.
The method you choose to grow your greens also affects how you harvest them. If you grow a wide bed of baby greens, once the plants are three or four inches tall you harvest the greens either with scissors or with your fingers. You cut at least an inch above the crown so the plant will not be killed. Put the baby greens in a basket and bring them into the kitchen to be washed and served. After you pick your baby greens, fertilize the bed with fish emulsion; if the weather is suitable, they will resprout and be ready for a second harvesting in a few weeks. Sometimes they resprout a third time.
There is yet another method for growing varieties that head-up forming crisp, tight heads and rosette-type greens. Plant these varieties—such as lettuces, spinach, tatsoi, endive, escarole, kale, arugula, and mustards—in conventional rows. Your first harvest would be of the thinnings; then as the remaining plants became established (with six or eight leaves), you can harvest an outer leaf or so from each plant. Depending on the type of plant, once your plants reach mature size, you can either harvest the whole plant or continue to harvest individual leaves over a few months. As a rule, mature heading lettuces, cabbages, tatsoi, spinachs, curly endive, escarole, mâche, and arugula are harvested as entire plants. If you let them get too mature they will get bitter and develop a flowering stalk; this is called bolting. You can harvest individual tender young leaves off leaf lettuces, amaranths, Swiss chard, kales, and orach over a fairly long season. The perennials, dandelions and sorrel, are harvested over a number of years, either by picking a few leaves at a time as needed or by cutting back the entire plant a few times a year so new leaves will emerge a few weeks later. See the individual vegetable entries in the “Encyclopedia of Salad Greens” (page 23) for more specific harvesting information, especially for greens such as radicchio, escarole, and Belgian endive, which need special treatment.
All in all, a salad garden makes a wonderful beginner’s garden and provides a good selection for busy cooks. Few edible gardens can be as beautiful or as useful in the kitchen.
My salad gardens produce far more greens than I and my husband could ever use. Jesse Cool chef at the nearby Flea Street restaurant, visits and leaves with a few giant leaves of Japanese red mustard and a handful of lettuce leaves.
Jody Main my gardenmanager, harvests extra lettuces for a food bank.
the Creasy salad garden