A healthy young head of lettuce in my garden.

Have you ever had a 'honeymoon' salad? It is lettuce alone.

The best tasting salads start with fresh lettuce you pick from your own beds. It is so easy to grow, and so very good for us, every gardener should give it a try. And like every thing else you grow to eat, you will quickly become convinced that growing your own salad greens makes a lot more sense than a weekly run to the store for more. Salad greens do not last forever in the refrigerator, so being able to pick them just before you serve your salad ensures the best taste, nutrition and color.

If you have ever visited the back room of the produce section of the stores, you would see a huge wooden bin full of the darkest outer leaves of the head lettuce, which is removed before they wrap the heads in plastic and set them out for sale. These bins of produce scraps are then picked up by locals to feed to their livestock. The pigs are getting the best part of the lettuce. The darker the green color in the leaves, the more vitamins they contain. We eat salad as a avenue to getting some little bits of other veggies with it, and some roughage, but why not make salads that offer more than just roughage?

One of the reasons Mesclun Mix salads are so popular is how colorful they are. Another is the taste. Some salad greens are peppery tasting, almost like a radish. When growing head lettuce, you will find it has a sweet aftertaste when fresh. The cores should not be bitter, but sweet to eat. The outer leaves will be crisp and deeply colored, but should not be bitter to the tastebuds. It will be the perfect avenue for delivering the other salad ingredients. In the pursuit of making eating into an artform, excellent lettuce is essential.

Lettuce leaves are pretty limp when they are very young. The larger they grow, the more body they have. Once the lettuce is large enough to have some firmness to the leaves, you can start picking the outer leaves to add to salads. Leaving the center of the plant allows it to continue to grow and produce more leaves. Depending on the variety you are growing, the outer leaves may or may not have their full color or flavor, but the later leaves will. Oak leaf lettuce remains pretty soft and pale even when mature, so don't panic if it isn't as green as a pepper. The different shades of color in a salad make it more attractive to the eye, which is the forerunner to appetite.

• You can avoid wasting the lower leaves on your lettuce as they grow by mulching them with a material, like straw, that will allow moisture to wick away from them and keep them off the dirt, which causes decay. It prevents rain from splashing up and depositing soilborne bacteria onto the leaves.
• Give your lettuce a steady supply of water to prevent bitterness in the leaves and early bolting.
• If you live in very hot climate, grow your lettuce in partial or full shade. You may need to refrigerate your seeds for a couple of weeks before sowing in hot climate.
• Harvest lettuce in the early morning, after dew is gone. They will have the most moisture and best texture then.
• Unless your lettuce is extremely dirty, do not wash it until you are ready to make a salad. The leaves should remain as dry as possible to prevent decay.
• Store lettuce in the crisper in a plastic bag, poke holes in the bag for circulation and you can put a dry paper towel inside to absorb any moisture. Leave the bag open.
• Don't pack the bag too tightly with leaves or heads. A break in the leaves can cause decay and you want circulation around them.
• Wash the salad greens just before making the salad. Lay out a long double layer of paper towels on the counter and place the rinsed and drained leaves on it. Do all the greens and then roll up the towels very loosely to soak up the water. You can let this set while you get out the rest of the salad makings. If the towels are getting extremely wet, where you can see through them, change the paper towels and roll it again.
• I wash and dry any fresh herbs I have picked for the salad along with the lettuces.
• You can also use white cotton lintless dish towels to dry your lettuce.
• A dry lettuce leaf will cling to the salad dressing.
• Tear your lettuce or any salad green. Do not use a knife to slice it, as the metal will react on the leaves causing browning, which is really decay from bruising.
• Leftover salad that has no dressing on it may keep until lunch tomorrow, but longer than that it won't taste good. The composter doesn't care how old it is, though.
• Salad greens have their best flavor when mature and full of color.
• If you have been away for the weekend and your green bed is dry, water it well for 2-3 days before harvesing to avoid any bitterness from dry plants.
• Sow seeds every 3 weeks right into fall for a long picking season.
• Sow in your greenhouse in the fall for winter picking. Serving your own fresh green salad with a holiday dinner will really please the diners.
• You can indulge in 'honeymoon' salads while you are in the garden.
• Grow a variety of salad greens. Some are not called lettuce at all. Try Mesclun, Arugula, Chicory & Mizuna along with all the many varieties of head and leaf lettuces.

If you grow a lettuce that you want to save seeds from, you will need to let it remain in the ground long enough to go to seed. Let the seeds dry out on the plant as long as possible without the birds eating them, then harvest them and save in a dry, cool place for the next planting season.

"Our health always seems much more valuable after we have lost it".