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  • From: "Beth Spaugh" <lists AT rhomestead.com>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] winter salad
  • Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 20:03:14 -0500

I am growing some hardy and forcing lettuces in a hoophouse this winter. Zone 4 – below zero tonight, but they made it through the other zero degree night.

 

They taste great! I intend to expand this commercially next year. I am still at the point of looking at them and debating whether to sell them now while they are so good, and then have to buy salad, or hope they survive and keep them for our own eating.

 

Looking forward, I am questioning the size to grow/sell them at. They are currently 6 to 8 inches tall. This is an easy size to clean, and a pound is MUCH bulkier, like at least quadruple the volume, of small salad mix. I am questioning whether growing baby salad mix or this size (or larger) is more economical. Labor of course is one issue. But, during the regular growing season I could plant more successions of baby size, which would probably tilt the economics in favor of baby on a land use and number of crops basis. But, at this time of year the stuff isn’t regrowing much, so if cut at baby size would just sit there. And I am not set up to harvest and clean baby salad well – it is a wet, sloppy job which means very cold this time of year.

 

What I see as the plusses of this size are:

            Reduced disease pressure because the plants are 6 to 9 inches apart

            Much less messy rinsing (and therefore dryer/warmer)

            I am cultivating a restaurant that is starting a salad bar, and because of the bulk of the larger size, I think customers will eat less of this size, making it more economical for him. This even applies to spring/summer/fall crops.

            Picking the outer leaves, there is more leaf area left for photosynthesis than cutting baby mix, so maybe it will regrow more? It has kept growing surprisingly to date.

 

Questions:

            I didn’t plant these until mid-October (at that point they were in plugs but still less than 2 inches tall – they surprised me the way they grew). If I had planted sooner the plants would be larger, but would they withstand the cold as well when larger? Of course, I could have been harvesting the larger outer leaves so maybe they wouldn’t actually be larger.

            I have empty space in my hoophouse. When can I start seeding or transplanting spinach, arugula, mizuna, kale, and the lettuces?

 

I am really psyched about this. I want to find ways to spread the workload out and make summer a little more sane and enjoyable. I would like to actually cook and eat my veggies and preserve some,, and therefore answer customers’ questions about flavor and preparation. This looks like a way to spread some work away from summer. I suspect outside harvest would be miserable, but in the hoophouse it is still rather pleasant. Yes the fingers can get cold, but, because of the light workload this time of year, I can stop and warm them up.

 

I am searching for more cold hardy lettuce and other greens. I gave up on mache because it was so small. Any suggestions? The list I have so far is Magnet, Akcel, Winter Density, Brune D Hiver, Grand Rapids, Lobjoits Green Cos, Hardy White Cos, Rouge d Hiver, Winter Marvel, Capitane.

I have Sweet Valentine, Red-tinged Winter lettuce, and North Pole lettuce, and others but I don’t have the list handy - dill, cilantro, raab, and a couple other lettuces along with some Red Russian and Winterbor kale. The North Pole is hard to harvest outer leaves – it seems better for cutting the whole plant. The Sweet Valentine is really beautiful with excellent texture and flavor.

 

Thank you.

 

Beth Spaugh
Rehoboth Homestead
Peru NY
rhomestead.com





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