April 1, 2010
Spring is in full bloom, and the salad greens are GOING CRAZY! My Mom planted an "Italian" and "French" salad mix of seeds in the fall, and they did pretty well, and then they died back in the snow we had in February. But now....they're BACK!
The most delicious mix was the "French," which included royal oak leaf, freckles lettuce, butterhead, flint, spinach, and heirloom Cos type lettuces. These are all "heirloom" varieties and can be found here at High Mowing Organic Seeds, of Vermont.
The oak leaf is most easily recognized in a "bag" salad of baby greens from the store, but it doesn't develop it's full flavor until the leaves are mature.
Even when mature and picked later, these varieties of lettuce are still tender and carry excellent flavor. I had heard that "baby green" varieties that are allowed to mature a little longer become bitter...I think this is a myth.
The radishes are doing well, and they provide a nice bite to my salad. We planted three varieties this year: traditional red, pink and mild white.
Here is a nice salad dressing I've come up with that contains many fresh, local ingredients:
- juice of 1 Hilton Head meyer lemon (frozen in December)
- 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon of local honey
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
- blend in enough California extra virgin olive oil to make a 2:1 oil to acid ratio.
I like to whisk this all together in the bottom of my salad bowl. I then add the freshly picked (washed and dried) salad greens, thinly sliced fresh radishes, toss to coat and serve!
This dressing is great in a salad with dried cranberries, pecans and sliced local hard-boiled egg.
I wish that I could attend a workshop in May at the Sooke Harbour House garden, hosted by none other than my cousin, Buddy Cook.
He will be teaching guests about growing your own organic salad in small spaces or even window boxes.
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