Last week I realized I was losing the battle trying to keep up with my lettuce, but I was determined not to lose the war. The war in this scenario would be the lettuce getting so out-of-hand that it goes to seed. When vegetables go to seed, that basically means they are done being edible for the season. Their stalks get rough and hard. It’s downhill from there.
To help move through my produce, I decided to start a little farmer’s market stand at my office. You know, the day job that keeps me from just spending all daylight hours in the garden and pays the mortgage so I can have this little plot of land to tend. Anyways, I harvested about two kitchen sinks full of lettuce: crinkly green, butter, red leaf, and arugula. You can see this lovely medley growing together in perfect harmony in an earlier post.
The overwhelming heap of lettuce was washed twice, bagged, and sent packing with me on the bus into work. I sent out an all-agency email inviting everyone with a garden to bring in their excess on Wednesdays to share for free with our co-workers. About ten minutes later the lettuce bags were happily snatched up.
This morning I forgot, completely. With my grandfather’s situation and some other matters, I have just been crawling along. I was just so tired and spacey this morning. So tonight I spent the few fading daylight hours snipping more lettuce and some herbs as well. I arranged little packets of herb bouquets, which includes purple sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and bay leaves. They look adorable. This would be an excellent hostess gift, so I need to remember this at the next dinner party I run off to.
Although I didn’t really feel like eating dinner, I went ahead and made myself. I cooked up a nice helping of ravioli with toasted garlic and pine nuts. I threw on a handful of fresh herbs and spun up a giant mess of salad. The arugula is such a meaty, spicy kick in there with the other lettuce varieties. Who knew a simple lettuce salad could be so incredibly delicious? I would have taken a picture of the spread, but I realized once I sat down that I was starving and inhaled the food. Heavenly.
Oddly, I am taking some lettuce to work today too. RANT—PLEASE MAKE THE WEATHER WARM UP—RANT OVER!!!
I am going to go ahead and give myself the big F- on the garden this year. I planted lettuces and arugula from seed about 2 months ago and the lettuces are about 2″ tall and the arugula is about 1″ tall. π They are in a spot that gets sun only from – could that be what is wrong?
Stuff is just not growing!
Glad we’re spreading the harvest! Maybe it will be contagious to get the co-workers to plant a plot.
HSM, don’t despair. The veggie bed covers saved my hide this year. I can’t believe how much that idea paid off for me!
The other side of the story is that my tomatoes, eggplants, and lavender seeds from indoors are completely pathetic. After a couple weeks of summer weather, you will be caught up. I planted melons and squash outside last night, so it’s not too late to get things growing in.