Baby Lettuce

April's regular rain and milder temperatures have caused an explosion of greens in the garden. It is always such a feast for the eyes in April, colors suddenly popping out on every street. Stunning rainbows of tulips, the sugary pink and white bursts of flowering trees and now the azaleas peeping out from once dreary lawns. All the seeds planted in March have sprouted and are really starting to fill in nicely. The rows of lettuce are looking good and healthy. It will be another week or 2 before salad season officially begins but now it is time for the delights of baby lettuce.

Lettuce is the really most enjoyable crop I grow mainly because it's easy. If you have a little space to spare, you can grow lettuce. It fits in just about anywhere, can be sown directly into your garden or into a free planter. Since lettuce matures so quickly, a month or 2 depending on the variety, you can plant it with other slower growing plants and harvest before they run out of room. It also does not usually suffer much damage from pests. There are many varieties, from sweet to tart, flat greens and frilly reds, a lot more than you will ever find in any market. I love to see a garden well quilted with multicolored heads of lettuce so this year I've planted 4 different varieties of lettuce - Black Seeded Simpson, Matina Sweet Butterhead, Red Oakleaf and Deer Tongue. So much of the Deer Tongue sprouted that I needed to thin the seedlings tonight which meant I got my first salad of baby lettuce!

A little oil and vinegar is all fresh from the garden lettuce needs to accent it's delicate flavor. I tossed in a radish that was ready too. Yum.