Fresh Lettuce

With the season now in full swing I've been so busy gardening, blogging time has been scarce.

At the home garden we harvested some baby lettuce for a salad Monday. It was my first attempt growing lettuce. I planted seed called "Crunchy Lettuce Trio Blush Batavians" from Renee's Garden in a small clay bowl.

The package says it does well in both heat and cold weather. This is how it looked May 22. In my hurry to get dinner on the table I didn't snap any photos of the lettuce at harvest or served in a lemon juice, garlic and olive oil dressing. I had been seeing those baby lettuce mixes in the store and had even purchased a few, so when these grew bushy enough I simply cut the leaves about an inch or so from the base and voila! Some varieties will continue to grow for a second harvest and I'm hoping this is one of them.

As you can see the planting was quite crowded so tender baby leaves were the goal all along. I have purchased a slightly larger bowl and several types of summer lettuce seeds that reportedly do well in the heat of the season. After this had sprouted and when the weather turned warm I moved the bowl to an area where it gets only a few hours of morning sun. One of the perks of gardening in containers is location changes are easy.

At our community plot I stole a couple of strawberries today. Shh... Don't tell the kids. They weren't completely ripe but tasty nonetheless. I wanted to get them before the birds did.