Spring is the best time of year to grow lettuce in the Missouri Ozarks. And so it is also the best time to make fresh nourishing salads. Today I would like to share my favorites with you: favorite lettuce varieties, favorite easy homemade salad ideas, and favorite homemade salad dressings.
My favorite lettuce varieties For easy Homemade Salad ideas
When it comes to lettuce varieties, the possibilities are endless. And I have grown about 30 different varieties over the years. Things I look for in a good lettuce variety are mild flavor, upright leaves, slow to bolt, pleasant texture, and heavy production. So let me share some tried and true favorites with you.
Lettuce Varieties available from Johnny seeds
Salanova Red Batavia
This variety is compact, upright, and slow to bolt. It has strong tip burn tolerance and a high resistance to downy mildew. Full size heads take 55-60 days to mature. Besides that, it is lovely to look at and delightful to eat.
Salanova Green Sweet Crisp
This lettuce is a huge producer. It is a true cut and come again. The leaves are sweet (for lettuce), crunchy, and crisp. It is also slow to bolt and highly resistant to downy mildew. Green Sweet Crisp lettuce matures in about 50 days.
Fusion
A lovely cross between romaine and leaf lettuce varieties, this family favorite has an upright behavior with heads that remain fully open. It is slow to bolt and has a flavor similar to romaine lettuce. Heavy heads with high leaf count mature in about 55 days.
Lettuce Varieties available from Rare Seeds
Merlot
This was my first favorite lettuce variety and the one I have been growing the longest. The color is almost unreal. It is known to be possibly the darkest red lettuce in existence. This is a true cut and come again variety that is slow to bolt, but has excellent cold tolerance as well. Heads mature in about 55 days, but outer leaves can be harvested even earlier. Love this one!
Yedikule
The soft, buttery, mild tasting leaves of this variety are always welcome in our salads. The leaves are high in natural oils which means you can go light on the dressing if you like. Yedikule is best grown in the spring and fall.
Landis Winter
This variety almost didn’t make the favorite list because the bottom leave sit on the ground and get a bit yucky. But it is so reliable and delicious that I find myself growing it every year despite the messy bottom leaves. It even grows through the winter in our zone 6 with just a row cover over it. It is one of the most hardy, frost resistant varieties I have grown. I like to plant it in the fall and overwinter it for an early spring harvest, but it also grows well when started in the winter greenhouse for a later spring harvest.
Favorite Easy Homemade Salad ideas
Eating fresh greens from the garden is one of my favorite things and I’ll eat them happily with just about any meal. But there are three salads that top the list for me: strawberry kale salad, salmon patty salad, and BBQ turkey bacon cheeseburger salad. And they each have their own homemade dressing to top them off.
Easy Strawberry Kale Salad
Our sweet daughter Esther came up with this salad. It only has four “required” ingredients, but there are other optional ingredients that can be added if desired. All you need is: fresh kale washed and chopped, fresh strawberries cut up, a dash of lemon juice, and a drizzle of raw honey. Other tasty additions include: chopped apple pieces, blanched almond pieces, sour cream, and MCT oil.
Easy Salmon Patty salad
This one is not a family favorite, but it is one of my all time favorite salads, none the less. Just make your favorite salmon patty recipe, steam up some beets, and put them both on a bed of lovely greens. Top with salted pumpkin seeds if you like. And the dressing is so simple.
Lemon Herb Dressing:
- 1/2 cup Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 T. lemon juice
- 1 T. raw honey
- 1 t. Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
- 1 t. onion granules
- 1 t. dried parsley
- 1/4 t. dried dill (optional for those who like dill)
BBQ Turkey bacon cheeseburger salad
Who doesn’t like a good BBQ burger? Me actually. As a child, those pesky little hard fat balls in ground beef used to find there place in a neat little pile on the edge of my plate. I have since learned to just not bite down too hard on my burgers and all is well, as long as it’s lean ground beef. And the addition of turkey bacon bits scattered throughout the burger turns like into love. Just chop that burger up, scatter it over a bed of lettuce, top with a little homemade ranch dressing and WOW!
Ranch Dressing:
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup sour pickle juice (we love Bubbies Pickles)
- 1 T. dried parsley
- 1 t. onion granules
- 1/2 t. garlic granules
- 1/4 t. sea salt
- 1/2 t. dried basil (optional for those who like basil)
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What’s your favorite lettuce variety?
Do you have a tried and true lettuce variety that you love? Please share in the comments below.
For more gardening inspiration, check out my organic gardening page.
Blessings,
Carrie
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