Head lettuce?

[digitS']

Head lettuce represents a classic fail for me - but, not in the way one might think.

I had heard that it was difficult and avoided the class for years. Then I decided to grow Summertime. Having the plants bolt or split was a concern in the arid climate here. Summertime had the right name, so . . .

There was a bed in the garden I had then that was shaded in the afternoon by an apricot tree. Fairly ideal for lettuce, I decided Summertime should have that bed. It grew just fine - nice heads, beautiful color!

Unfortunately, it was ready all at the same moment!! I decided to take it to the market and filled 1 table with this lettuce!

At that time we attended a market with a guy who would simply stop and load up at a produce company on marketday morning. I'm not sure if he even bought what he offered - just returned what he had left at the end of the day to the wholesaler and paid for what he'd sold. He was front and center at the market and the few actual growers there played 2nd fiddle.

If this sounds like a farmers' market to you -- you need to re-evaluate your definition.

He had several cases of head lettuce on the day we showed up with Summertime. That day, he decided that lettuce would be his give-away! Of course, he had many customers buying whatever else he was selling and, with a $10 purchase (or whatever), they got a free head of lettuce.

I took a table-full of Summertime home and fed the compost pile. My advice, 'Dorie: Don't plant a whole lot of head lettuce at the same time.

Steve

 

[Kim_NC]

Oh Steve, I'm so sorry to hear that happened to you at a farmers market. We're very successful at a nearby city market. But there are people who come with wholesale (trucked) produce. Fortunately, the repeat customers know who they are, and the real farmers help educate the newer customers. We've developed a following that really helps us too.

But we've also looked at smaller markets where wholesalers ruin everything and the customers know no better. It's hard to work that kind of market - limited traffic, and one or two guys cutting prices to move trucked produce they have not labored to produce.

Here, the better small markets insist that you must be a grower, bring your own produce, and local Co-op Ext Agents visit to make sure the seller is a legit grower. We take our produce and meats to the latter and deliberately avoid the former.

It's really a shame when wholersalers ruin a market. Buyer beware.....ask the person behind the table before you make a purchase!

 

[digitS']

Well Kim, the guy with the wholesale produce did ruin that market. It never attracted enough local growers with their produce to become truly viable and the market folded. We were long gone by that time.

The customers realized after awhile that they were really just buying what was available to them at any supermarket.

An important issue is that the people growing vegetables make decisions months in advance as to what they will have in their gardens and fields. In the case of an orchardist, it is really years. If the produce is ready for the table -- it is ready and down to the market with it, they come!

When the consumers with an interest in that produce meet the growers -- there isn't just a transaction. A celebration of the harvest is a very natural and human thing and rather seriously lacking in the aisles of a supermarket.

Steve

 

[Kim_NC]

..........An important issue is that the people growing vegetables make decisions months in advance as to what they will have in their gardens and fields. In the case of an orchardist, it is really years. If the produce is ready for the table -- it is ready and down to the market with it, they come!

When the consumers with an interest in that produce meet the growers -- there isn't just a transaction. A celebration of the harvest is a very natural and human thing and rather seriously lacking in the aisles of a supermarket.

Steve

That's so true. We're (customers and us) constantly chatting about "what's being planting now", "how close to ready", "just another week or so". Then it's "how do you cook this?" "can you share a recipe", "oh, that was delicious".

Much beyond a supermarket transaction for cardboard produce. LOL

It's a crying shame that quite often in a supermarket the shopper has to tell young clerks what the vegetables actually are, for them to enter a code in the cash register.

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Head lettuce represents a classic fail for me - but, not in the way one might think.

I had heard that it was difficult and avoided the class for years. Then I decided to grow Summertime. Having the plants bolt or split was a concern in the arid climate here. Summertime had the right name, so . . .

There was a bed in the garden I had then that was shaded in the afternoon by an apricot tree. Fairly ideal for lettuce, I decided Summertime should have that bed. It grew just fine - nice heads, beautiful color!

Unfortunately, it was ready all at the same moment!! I decided to take it to the market and filled 1 table with this lettuce!

At that time we attended a market with a guy who would simply stop and load up at a produce company on marketday morning. I'm not sure if he even bought what he offered - just returned what he had left at the end of the day to the wholesaler and paid for what he'd sold. He was front and center at the market and the few actual growers there played 2nd fiddle.

If this sounds like a farmers' market to you -- you need to re-evaluate your definition.

He had several cases of head lettuce on the day we showed up with Summertime. That day, he decided that lettuce would be his give-away! Of course, he had many customers buying whatever else he was selling and, with a $10 purchase (or whatever), they got a free head of lettuce.

I took a table-full of Summertime home and fed the compost pile. My advice, 'Dorie: Don't plant a whole lot of head lettuce at the same time.

Steve

Yeah, even my leaf lettuce I plant about 6 plants a week for several weeks so I don't have to deal with the masses. I don't mind when beans and tomatoes come on all at once but lettuce. . .So it did alright in a slightly shaded area. I've been trying to figure out how to keep it from bolting.