The view from the chair in my greenhouse.
Freshly cut greens with parsley too.
That's my knee in the pic above - my favorite spot for admiring the food. I have been watching and waiting for these broadcast mixed greens to get to this point, so today I ran to get my scissors to help make it easy and quick.
I know that salad greens are pretty common in the winter greenhouse but how long I've been without them is not common. Luckily they grow fast and tonight I cut a lush batch for dinner - they were well worth the wait.
I always submerge my greens in water - it gets them much cleaner than just rinsing them. So I do both - into a bowl of cold water they go to lift the dirt up and out of the crevices but then a final rinse is in order before they go into the salad spinner. After they are dry, I put them in a produce bag and refrigerate them before dinner - they are crispy cold and so yummy by the time the meal is done.
The bed of greens above will soon overtake my ability to keep up with it. You wait and wait, and once you cut your first batch of cut-and-come-again greens they just seem to explode, hurrying to replace themselves.
I hand picked some and then cut with a sharp scissors, I just gather up a handful and carefully cut well above the crown, to allow new growth. It's hard to tell I cut at all in the picture below but I'm adding it so you can see how little it takes to cut a salad bowl full.
The bed of greens above will soon overtake my ability to keep up with it. You wait and wait, and once you cut your first batch of cut-and-come-again greens they just seem to explode, hurrying to replace themselves.
I hand picked some and then cut with a sharp scissors, I just gather up a handful and carefully cut well above the crown, to allow new growth. It's hard to tell I cut at all in the picture below but I'm adding it so you can see how little it takes to cut a salad bowl full.
The view from my chair after I cut.
I've long made my own Mesclun mixes (Mesclun simply means 'mixture'), and this one is particularly mild and succulent. I often jazz it up with hot and spicy greens but this batch wanted to be mild. There is a mixture of can't-beat lettuces, but also lots of Claytonia - or Miner's Lettuce, a delicious wild thing that is so plump and sweet I can't stand it. I also included good old meaty-yummy spinach, some lovely endive and a little Mache or Corn Salad. The lettuces include Red Saladbowl, Marvel of Four Seasons, Winter Density Romaine, Drunken Woman Frizzy-Headed, Australian Yellow and Merlot.
Make your own - it's fun and unique. If you have a lot of almost finished lettuce packets, mix them all up and broadcast them for fast salad greens. You can do this in all kinds of containers you have in the garage, empty window boxes, Petunia hanging baskets, pretty bowls, whatever, you can grow salad greens in a 5-gallon bucket if you want. I like to grow a colorful mix of greens in a pretty bowl and set it on the table - go ahead and graze right there.
Don't forget to include herbs too - I especially like Cilantro, Chervil or Chives in the salad mix.
Make your own - it's fun and unique. If you have a lot of almost finished lettuce packets, mix them all up and broadcast them for fast salad greens. You can do this in all kinds of containers you have in the garage, empty window boxes, Petunia hanging baskets, pretty bowls, whatever, you can grow salad greens in a 5-gallon bucket if you want. I like to grow a colorful mix of greens in a pretty bowl and set it on the table - go ahead and graze right there.
Don't forget to include herbs too - I especially like Cilantro, Chervil or Chives in the salad mix.
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