Yesterday, i had three wisdom teeth out under a general anaesthetic at Cheltenham General Hospital. Needless to say, i am suffering lots. Happily there is no bruising…yet, but i’m still feeling lightheaded and can’t walk straight yet (some would say this is usual!). As i can’t eat solids yet, i am limited to sloppy weetabix and tea drenched digestive biscuits. Nice. Not the best feeling, when walking past a pea plant dripping with mange-tout!
So i thought today, i’d write about something that i can eat, albeit slowly. Lettuce.
One of the main reasons we decided to start growing our own veg was because we didn’t like the idea of it being flown miles and miles across the world to get to us, having been sprayed and pumped full of stuff to make it last longer. As i posted here last year the bagged lettuce you buy in a supermarket gets sprayed with chlorine that is 20 times stronger that that you would find in a swimming pool. That’s a reason to grow your own if any!
Last year, we did quite poorly with things like spinach, lettuce, chard etc, after our initial first sowings had died off. There just wasn’t the space, what with all the companion planting we did with flowers (a lesson learnt - in a garden such as ours, flowers have to live on the outside of the beds…if at all…(evil Dr. Claw laugh…)).
This year, everything seems to have bolted, although we have been having a regular supply of leaves, mostly oriental things such as mustard and mizuna, with some lettuce and chard thrown in. The ‘All year round’ lettuce picture at the top was harvested on Wednesday, in the sunshine. They take a while to fill out, but once they do, they sit quite happily for months without going to seed. It’s dead easy just to pop outside with a sharp knife, and take one inside. That turns our food miles into metres!
So to keep the supply of leaves up, we recently sowed a huge amount of Perpetual Spinach (better in hot weather), rocket, lettuce all year round and red chard. If we cover it when the cold weather begins to set in, we might have some nice leaves for Christmas dinner.
Tags: growing perpetual spinach, harvesting lettuce, lettuce all year round, successional planting
June 21st, 2008 at 8:13 am
Many commiserations re the teeth. Had mine out same way and looked like an evil hamster for days. No fun at all.
I’m through with lettuce. Fed up with it bolting - plus all the aggro involved in keeping the birds and the slugs off. Doesn’t seem worth the effort.
June 21st, 2008 at 8:22 am
enjoyed your site and your blog—will visit again i have had problems with slugs—also have raised beds—my biggest problem–weeds—next planting i am putting down plastic—check out the weeds in my watermelon patch. visit http://www.mysisterdalesgarden.com and my blog http://www.mysisterdalesgarden.blogspot.com
thanks,
miriam
June 21st, 2008 at 9:23 am
Teeth sound painful, hope the hamster phase doesn’t last too long. However it does sound like a perfect time for some home made soup! I recently saw a recipe for lettuce soup which might (?) be nice and it is different I guess. My current favourite is carrot, leek and ginger but is isn’t exactly the right time to try and make it at home since everything is out of season so maybe onion?
June 21st, 2008 at 10:05 am
Teeth a lot better today thanks, no bruising still bizarrely…i was led to believe it would be a lot worse than this!
Miriam - Thanks, always nice to get complements!
Cheers for the idea Amy, going to a wedding today, but tomorrow, onion, baby carrot and mange-tout soup doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all! Might leave the lettuce to my sandwiches though. Thining about it, i did see an idea of putting lettuce in a blender, with black pepper, salt and some herd, and making a lettuce pesto?
Soilman - lettuce pesto might be the solution to your bolted lettuce?
June 21st, 2008 at 10:23 am
I must be lucky so far with my lettuce - no bolting yet. Slugs have been a problem. And snails… But I reckon growing your own salad is wonderful. The choice in shops is so limited, and, as you say, so contaminated with chemicals. The veg I have issues with are the roots. They take up so much room and sit there slowly growing for ages. I think I need to chill a bit and learn to be less impatient but I keep looking at their bed and thinking of all the salad I could grow in it instead.
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I know what you mean. If you plant enough though, you could harvest baby roots, then get more seeds in in time?!