I believe @Frank Sanoica is our local wine and beer maker. Maybe he would engage in a little “greens to wine” talk.
We have had the wilted salad discussion a couple of times before. I always use spinach in my wilted salad, with bacon crumbles, thin sliced red onion and sliced boiled egg.
You're a man after my own heart. I just picked up a wedge of Roquefort today. A wedge lasts me a couple of weeks. I've been rotating through different styles of blue cheese recently to see which I prefer. I was telling the guy at the cheese counter that if I run out of blue cheese, I think twice before even bothering with a salad.
We have a short season, so that is not a problem here, but it is done with staggered planting and using different varieties in warmer regions. If you have chickens, rabbits, or other livestock there is never an unused surplus.
I think a wedge of Roquefort would last me a decade, @John Brunner. I detest the stuff and I think it ruins everything it touches.
I've been a bit spooked by all greens for a few years now, since learning about the parasite-bearing snails in gardens in Hawaii, that are now spreading to the US mainland. Thorough leaf-by-leaf washing is recommended for all home-grown greens and then a twenty-minute soak in white vinegar should do the trick. But personally I'd rather not take the risk! ＼(´･ ι ･`)／
I've messed with cleaning my greens off & on in my life...more off than on. I think I still have a half bottle of FIT under my kitchen sink. Heck, I've paid good money for snails, and people are supposed to pick them off????
I bought some Romaine again at a local grocery chain unlike the last I got at Aldi’s. It is one whole bunch and not a package of hearts. The leaves look like normal leaves as opposed to the Aldi’s which were an uncommonly dark shade of green. They must have been treated with something or grown with a ton of fertilizer. So far, so good. I never had a bad reaction from Aldi’s Romaine before except the last time.
I've occasionally had Romaine that has had those dark green leaves. I always thought they looked like they were on the verge of rotting. I started shopping at Aldi's a few months ago when one was built near me. I'm rethinking buying any produce there. The berries are cheap, but I always end up chucking half the blackberries because they have mold, and some number of the strawberries are already soft & bruised. Blueberries seem to hold up fine. This just happened again yesterday. I could see my "savings" being thrown in the trash. I've not purchased lettuce there.
A quick comparison: Iceberg Lettuce Vitamin A (9 percent of your recommended daily value) Folate (6 percent of your recommended daily value) Vitamin K (27 percent of your recommended daily value) Manganese (6 percent of your recommended daily value) Romaine Lettuce Vitamin A (148 percent of your daily recommended value) Folate (29 percent of your daily recommended value) Vitamin K (109 percent of your daily recommended value) Manganese (7 percent of your daily recommended value) Iron (5 percent of your daily recommended value) Potassium (6 percent of your daily recommended value) Vitamin C (34 percent of your daily recommended value) Fiber (7 percent of your daily recommended value)
I agree 100%. The same goes for topping burgers, making BLTs, and a whole buncha other stuff. I don't keep iceberg in the fridge and have used my Romaine mix for the above foods, and it is lacking. It's almost lifeless. I just don't like iceberg for salads. It's like celery...all crunch and no substance.
Some of you could try the butter head lettuce that @Bobby Cole recommended. It is kinda like a cross between the Romaine and iceberg. I don't know how common it is in grocery stores, but you should support locally-grown stuff when you can anyway. During my stay in South America, we soaked our produce in an iodine solution to kill parasites, as many are chlorine-resistant, but I don't know that it would kill snails.