Penn and Cord's Garden
  • Home
  • Penn's Blog
  • Classes/Consultations
  • Greenhouses
    • Order Greenhouse Plans!
    • Latest Greenhouses
    • Student Greenhouse Projects
    • Colorado College Greenhouse
  • Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds
    • More Wild Mountain Seed
    • Seed Saving
  • Contact Us
    • Newsletter
    • The Cool List >
      • The Book List
      • Penn's Tomato Critique
    • About Us
  • Store
  • Letter of Agreement

Winter Greenhouse Salad

12/29/2011

3 Comments

 
Picture
The view from the chair in my greenhouse.
Picture
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.
Picture
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.
3 Comments
Debra Neeley/Green Gate Urban Farm
5/28/2012 02:07:35 am

LOVE this lettuce info. Okay, so I want to start growing more lettuces, and I think trying to save lettuce seeds would not be the best use of my time. Can you tell me where to find the best and least expensive lettuce/spinach seeds? For instance, never even heard on Claytonia (Miners lettuce that is so good you can't stand it ;-) I am looking forward to branching out a bit, lettuce-wise!

Reply
Penn Parmenter link
5/28/2012 02:19:50 am

Hi Deb! I always buy first from Seeds Trust - they moved to Littleton! - and their prices are great. They carry both spinach and claytonia. Next Johnny's - often a large seed count. After that Pinetree for small seed counts - things you want to try - very inexpensive!

Reply
Dermal Filler Auckland link
6/24/2012 05:16:36 pm

To accomplish a longer full feeling throughout the morning, eat egg whites for your first meal of the day. Your stomach will not protest in hunger!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Penn Parmenter is a high altitude gardener, seedswoman and student of the earth.  She is married to Cord Parmenter - an awesome gardener, gorgeous man and a master blacksmith. Together they own and run a sustainable greenhouse design company, Smart Greenhouses LLC and Penn grows seed for her seed business, Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds.  She is a mother of three sons and an outdoorswoman.  Penn forages wild food, hunts big game, fishes, preserves, maintains a huge organic forest garden and occasionally makes dinner.  At home you can find her in her greenhouses as well as in the wilderness - nose to the ground, butt in the air, trying to identify Colorado natives.    

    Archives

    November 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    June 2018
    January 2018
    March 2017
    January 2017
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    March 2014
    October 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly