By Ben Bachman
It’s June! That means long, hot days with lots of sunlight. In late June, there are more daylight hours than any other time of the year! At the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, June means the summer growing season is here - the perfect time to tend and harvest our Harvest of the Month - Lettuce!
Lettuce comes in many shapes, sizes, and colors! Some of the more common types found growing at PFP are romaine and red oakleaf lettuce. Notice how different these two types look in the pictures below!
If you take a closer look at a leaf of lettuce, you’ll see a spine (or stem) and a delicate leafy portion. Both parts are good for eating. The spine of a lettuce leaf is high in fiber, while vitamins and minerals are concentrated in the leafy portion. In general, lettuce leaves with dark, rich color indicate higher fiber, flavor, and nutritional value. The most important nutrients in lettuce are vitamin A and potassium (Washington State Dept. of Agriculture).
If you’re tired of the heat and feeling cooped up at home, fresh, crispy lettuce can be a refreshing snack or a healthy addition to meals. What makes lettuce so easy and fun to eat? Just think of a salad bar! Greens taste good with all sorts of other foods, so they are great for improvising creative new combinations. You can mix them with veggies like cherry tomatoes or chopped onions and top them with fruits like apples or strawberries. You can even add protein like chopped walnuts or a hard-boiled egg.
To finish your salad, try a dressing like the one we shared in our recent Facebook post.
Salads, of course, are just one of many ways to eat lettuce. Here are some other ideas for you to try:
Snacktime Lettuce Roll-up
This recipe uses a few pantry staples to make a quick, delicious snack. Think of it like a wrap that uses lettuce instead of tortilla! Cut the recipe in half to make a couple roll-ups for yourself or scale it up to share even more!
Snack Time Lettuce Roll-Ups
Easy as 1 - 2 - 3 Smoothie
This recipe calls for greens, so you can mix it up with lettuce and other leafy vegetables like spinach or kale. For fruit, mix and match different types to find what you like the most.
Easy as 1-2-3 Smoothie
More Lettuce Tips:
Whatever you make with lettuce, make sure to always wash the leaves with cold water and dry them off before eating!
If you need to store lettuce for later, it’s best to keep it in your refrigerator inside a plastic bag. The lettuce will be more tasty if you eat it within 2-5 days. Here’s another secret to help your lettuce last longer in the fridge: Store greens away from fruits like pears, apples, bananas, tomatoes, and melons. These fruits produce a gas called ethylene that will make lettuce spoil faster.
Grow it Yourself!
Want to grow your own lettuce at home? Lettuce is an easy choice for beginning gardeners. All it takes is a little bit of space with good soil, water, and sunlight to grow lettuce plants that can yield fresh greens all summer long. To make sure your lettuce stays healthy, harvest the biggest, most mature leaves and leave behind the smaller, younger ones. These little leaves will grow and replenish the plant until it’s ready to harvest again. You usually don’t have to wait very long, as lettuce grows quickly. Don’t wait too long to harvest, though, or your lettuce might flower and stop growing fresh new leaves!
One of the best ways to grow lettuce is in a container (like a pot or a bucket). For some helpful tips on starting a container garden, watch this video from Poughkeepsie Food Power at Home:
Lettuce can be grown from seed, like in the previous video, or you can transplant seedlings to start a Shady Salad Garden. Watch our educators do just that in this video:
Whether you decide to try a new recipe or grow lettuce yourself, hopefully you’ve learned something new about lettuce today that helps you enjoy it even more!
Coloring Sheet
For some extra fun, print out this coloring sheet to make your own colorful lettuce creation. Remember - the darker and richer the colors, the healthier the lettuce!
Lettuce Coloring Sheet