How to Harvest Leaf Lettuce
- Harvesting leaf lettuce is quite simple. Are you having salad for dinner? Walk out to the garden and pick the mature leaves. When you think about how to pick leaf lettuce, just remember that you don’t want to uproot the whole plant, which will cause the rest of the plant to die off. Be gentle and quickly snap off each mature leaf, leaving behind those that aren’t ready so the Lettuce should be harvested when full size, but just before maturity. You want it young and tender.
- Before maturity, you can harvest leaf lettuce by simply removing outer leaves so that the center leaves can continue to grow. Butterhead or romaine types can be harvested by removing the outer leaves, digging up the whole plant or cutting the plant about an inch above the soil surface. A second harvest is often possible this way. Crisphead lettuce is picked when the center is firm.
- Mature lettuce gets bitter and woody and it will go bad quickly, so check your garden everyday.
- As time passes, you will want to cut the whole plant from the ground.
- It’s best to harvest in the morning before leaves have been exposed to sun.
- Keep lettuce in the refrigerator for up to 10 days in a loose plastic bag
1- 5 ounce can evaporated milk
1/4 cup cider vinegar
4 1/2 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
Whisk the evaporated milk, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper together in a bowl until the sugar is dissolved. Chill until ready to use.
Till next time, this is Becky Litterer, from Becky's Greeenhouse, Dougherty Iowa Enjoy this great Memorial Day weekend...