Growing, Eating Lettuce and The Swine

As the swine flu hits our town, our first batch of lettuce grown from seed is ready for harvest. My son's high school has been closed since Monday due to one reported case of the swine flu and his little sister who is in sixth grade sees that as a terrible, terrible injustice.  She already sees her big brother as a "swine" and now he gets a couple of days off from school.  Dang! Life is so unfair if you are a tween!

Growing lettuce is a very easy thing. Please don't be scared and keep an open mind. If you are fortunate to have a little yard, terrific.  If you are fortunate to have a sunny deck, balcony or window box, terrific too!  Or get thyself to a community garden. Think, "yes I can!"  Just purchase some sort of planter box,  could be half a wine barrel or a wooden crate, make sure it is made of natural materials for vegetable use and not treated with some awful toxic preservative. Then purchase some organic potting soil for vegetables.  You can buy seedlings from your local nursery or grow your own from seed. The salad in the photo below is  from my garden and the most incredible tasting and fast growing lettuce on the planet. The seeds are Sassy Salad Mesclun mix from Botanical Interests. The owner Curtis and family take great pride in their seeds and it shows.  There is lots of instruction and information on each seed packet, so you can do this. My seeds have a 99.9 % germination rate and in California  (and my Aunt Fran in New Jersey, too!)  we are fortunate enough to plant these seeds year round. There are 17 different varieties of lettuce in this  seed packet and the taste is absolutely delicious. Someone, somewhere figured out that the average lettuce travels 1400 miles to reach your dinner plate. Imagine if you could pick lettuce in your own backyard? And, how this would impact your carbon footprint?   The seed packet yields so much lettuce, I cannot begin to tell you.  Now go ahead and give it a try. 

Store bought bottled salad dressings confuse me.  From their high sodium to their  high cholesterol content to the tons of preservatives in between. The most delicious salad dressing has none of that.  Purchase a bottle of good quality extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and a shallot.  Got it? Serve it at a dinner party, and everyone will lick their plate wondering what kind of dressing it is... promise.

Simple, Safe, Healthy and Cheap Salad Dressing Recipe

3 cups  mesclun mix 

1 tablespoon  balsamic vinegar

4 tablespoons  extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon  shallot, minced

mix all of the above in a  small bowl until emulsified and pour over lettuce

 salt and pepper to taste 

If you need to make more, it's 4 parts oil to one part vinegar and as much shallot you want or don't want.