GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: salad greens

  • Locavore Garden Salad instead of PBJ for lunch

    Locavore Garden Salad instead of PBJ for lunch

    OK, what is a locavore garden salad? Its when you walk out to your garden and cut some salad greens. This all started with lunch.

    locavore-garden-salad-instead-of-pbj-for-lunch

    We were about to have lunch, and it was going to be PBJs, since it was simple and all the ingredients were there. But I have been on this kinda sorta gluten free before 6 pm thing – we talk about gluten free on GF Radio here – so I grabbed my scissors and went out to the garden.

    There was kale, and young salad greens that had sprouted 2 weeks ago, plus arugula, which grows like a weed anyway. I cut the greens to that they would grow again – this is going to be our hoop house raised bed this winter – and was back in the kitchen in 5 minutes.

    Put water on to make some poached eggs – kinda like the neato Salad Lyonaise video we did – and washed the salad quickly. It almost didn’t need washing it was so young, but… I made a quick vinegarette salad dressing in the mixing bowl. You can use just the egg yolk as a dressing, like in the Salad Lyonnaise recipe, but I wanted the balsamic in there.

    locavore-garden-salad-instead-of-pbj-for-lunch-2

    And its good I did make the dressing, because I overcooked the eggs, they were no longer soft poached, but they were still good. Not bad for a quick switch from PBJ.

  • Grow Lettuce Mesclun, Salad Greens GF Video

    Grow Lettuce Mesclun, Salad Greens GF Video

    Watch this video on how to grow lettuce, mesclun and salad greens and learn how to harvest salad and lettuce.

    Until the heat of summer knocks them down, loose leaf lettuce is one of those low maintenance pleasures of gardening. There are a ton of varieties of lettuces/salad greens (which we’ll go into in future episodes) right now we are growing a bunch of Deer Tongue and Antares, both from Fedco.

    Loose leaf lettuces can be harvested and then they grow again. All you do is cut the lettuce about an inch above the soil line with a scissors, and it will grow back. If you plant a few rows every two weeks, you can get lettuce for most of the growing season. With row covers or cold frames, you can harvest lettuce almost year round.

    Eliot Coleman, in his book, the Four Season Harvest, writes at length on how to prolong your lettuce growing season.

    Robin Follette writes about meeting Eliot Coleman in her Farm & Garden blog