Lettuce Alternatives

Yes I use paper plates too for snacks and sandwiches too.. save washing up, I don't have a dishwasher so I don't want to be hand washing plates all day for snacks etc..

They are pretty ones tho'..we tend to be only able to get plain white or silver here unless they're childrens' party plates..

 

We grow lettuce in a greenhouse. It is just volunteer. We planted it years ago in the bed, and let it go to seed in the Fall. It then comes up the following Spring. I guess we have our own variety of lettuce now. I will try to post a picture or two so you know what it looks like. We used to grow spinach, radishes and onions in the greenhouse in the early Spring, but we have pretty much given up on that for the moment. Our big greenhouse is several hundred yards from the house, and I am not able to snowshoe my way over there in early March when we used to plant that stuff. Holly, you should at least have a salad garden. Even folks in apartments can grow lettuce and stuff in a pot or porch box.

 

They have all kinds of nice ones and they're not anymore expensive than white. These aren't the very thin white ones though. I buy them on sale.

My daughter always buys a huge stack at Costco but those are bigger in diameter.

 

Oh I used to grow tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes, beans, apples, rhubarb and blackberries... but too much of it went to waste , and I was working full time like my husband still does, so I just didn't have the time or inclination to see to it...and we didn't eat more than a fraction of it, and no room at this house for a second chest freezer to store it all. I do grow herbs indoors, Basil Coriander etc .. and in the garden I have rosemary and a Bay leaf tree... but that's all now, the garden is now just for show, with manicured lawns , mature trees and shrubs, borders and flowers.

My daughter who lives in Spain has 5 acres where she has Almond trees, Cherry orchard, olive trees... she grows all her own fruit and veggies and nothing goes into a greenhouse because it's hot 300 days of the year there. her oranges and lemons are sweet as are her strawberries. She grows melons, bean, figs, onions, lettuce, and lots more..all organic!!

At my second home in Spain we have orange and lemon trees, as well as a few fig trees... but we have a Gardener there to look after everything

I would like to start growing food again, but I don't have the best of health now so I want something easy ..

 

That is why I suggested just a salad garden. A salad garden is not much work and you can easily adjust it to your needs, and if you travel, maybe a neighbor can pick it, or you can just let it go to seed and volunteer. A big garden is a lot of work, and if I didn't have my lady to do much of the work, I couldn't have one, either. The greenhouse is much easier and can double as a "Sun Room" during the cold early Spring. Much of what we grow in the greenhouses is on tables or benches, so there is not much bending down--what I have difficulty with. We grow plants for sale, too, so that adds a great deal to the work. The plant sale business may be scaled back next year, though.

 

Yes I have recently been asking my husband to make me a raised bed so I can plant some veggies without the need for all the bending. I nearly bought a ready made one the other day off the cuff, at the garden centre but I didn't realise that it has to be made of a special type of wood, as all the common preservatives used on wood to make it long lasting can leach into the produce, completely negating the idea of wholly organic plants and possibly even worse with potentially harmful chemicals to leach into the soil as well .

I didn't realise this, so I'm thinking again...and tossing around the idea of UPVC beds in preference to long lasting wood ... I've yet to do some research on them . I won't have another greenhouse, because since we removed the last one we've totally remodelled the garden so there's no place for one. At most all I could find a space for is a Poly-tunnel

 

I saw a neat bed that a lady had built out of cedar. I wish I had a picture of it. It was about a foot deep, on legs with casters, so she could move it around easily. It also had a plastic lid that could be closed in cold weather. I build our beds out of regular lumber, but line the bed with 6 mil polyethylene. It seems to work fine. The beds last about 15 years that way before you have to rebuild 'em. If I used cedar or redwood, it would cost me a fortune that I don't have, because mine are pretty big. I also have smaller ones that I made out of plastic storage bins. I use them mostly for cucumbers. They are on the floor.

 

If you are preparing to cook the greens, I prefer an equal combination of turnip, mustard and collards. They each have their own peculiarities but combined together the failings are overwhelmed by the good flavors of each.
Swiss Chard is so sweet and delicate, it’s in a class of its own so I like to steam it using a vegi stock.
All that said, whether by themselves or together, a little butter and a light chicken stock always seems to take away any bitterness you might dislike.

If you are going raw, yeah, my wife is exactly correct, the mustard greens are always a little musky tasting but watch out for the Chard because it takes a lot of washing to get rid of the grit.

 

Oh yes I've seen the Cedar ones too, I wanted one before I realised the whopping price...lol

Black plastic polythene liner may be the way forward for me ...I've just had a quick google to see if it's safe..... and on my first search I found this article

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=428


Thanks Don, your advice is very useful

 

Thanks! Yes, those greens I liked cooked. Maybe it's just a bad memory or even a wrong one because what I ate was cooked and very bitter and at that moment decided not to ever eat it again.

At the time I don't even know if I knew which green it was that I bought and ate.

I will experiment when I return from my daughter's.

 

I don't buy iceberg lettuce either. I like the mixed baby greens, spinach and use them on salads. I watch and make sure they are product of USA only. Although there was the recent Romaine lettuce from Texas I think. One grocery store had a large sign stating "Our romaine lettuce is from California"

Until the next outbreak.....

 

You should ALWAYS wash greens, even if they say they have been washed, especially if they are organic, since organic are even more likely to have fecal contamination than chemically grown ones. It is much easier to wash the leaf greens than the head ones, too. Iceberg lettuce and radicchio are impossible to get clean inside. A salad spinner is a good purchase if you don't have one, unless, of course, you process LARGE quantities of greens; then you can use you washing machine on a gentle spin cycle...!

 

Oh dear, I never wash the bagged greens. Those are essentially the only ones I buy

 

It is just an added precaution. You may never get sick, but if people adequately washed their greens, the Texas or Arizona issue wouldn't be an issue. In third world countries, we always added a little iodine to the water, too, to help against parasites. Another solution for some greens is to blanch and shock them. It keeps (or even brightens the colors) and protects against bacteria and parasites, and is common in Oriental cooking, especially in Japan. You just place the greens in 180 F. to 200 F. water for a minutes or two, then quickly dunk into ice water. Not good for a regular green salad, but it works for many things.