By JAQUI COLT
COLUMNIST
Lettuce talk about salad. I know what you are thinking: you are wrong, Jacqui. Salad is what you eat in the summer, to cool off from your long hard day of hitting the beach. Lettuce is tender and delicate, it could never make it past summer, plus we live like…REALLY far north. Like we have already seen snow this year. Salad mix? Impossible.
So to all of you who are thinking that (because obviously this column about seasonal veggies is getting you into heated, one-sided debates with a column that is printed in the newspaper), wrong-o. Ok, so heads of lettuce are not shooting out of the ground with gusto in November, but that does not mean that salad is out of the question.
First of all (this is maybe going to get opinionated right here), any salad mix worth it’s salt is far more than just lettuce. I have seen quite a few greens thrown in the mix in my days. Baby kale and baby Swiss chard are two obvious additions—I see you cringing at the idea of raw Swiss chard, but when it is real young it is quite tender, I promise. Those are hearty greens that can, and do, grow into November, even in the North Country. There are certainly other small greens that can be foraged, though I will admit that these might be scarce this time of the year. There are probably still some mustard greens still around, for instance, and perhaps lambsquarters.
But so far we have a handful of very powerful leaves in our salad bowl. We could stop there, but maybe we want a more mild, or more dynamic salad. How? A ridiculous idea would be to cover the plants up from the brutal NoCo fall/winter/spring elements and put them in a warm place where they can be safe and happy. Psh that would be absurd…OH WAIT, THAT IS A THING! Greenhouses rock (Not to be confused with the Green House, which also rocks)! And because some brilliant soul invented the greenhouse, guess what we can have all year long? Lettuce! Arugula! Spinach! Fresh herbs! Oh my!
So next time you find yourself complaining about a lack of fresh greens, take a stroll over to Nature’s Storehouse and check out the salad section! Chances are you will not be disappointed—though if it sells out because everyone else wants salad too, do not come crying to me.