Will The Real Lettuce Please Stand Up?

 Welcome back to an entirely new year of LITFM! We took a long hiatus to get our YouTube channel's second season completed and now this blog is back in action. So to get things rolling and at the request of some folks who visit the Farmer's market, I am posting a new series covering forage foods. Given the current geopolitical situation some of this information may come in handy in the not-to-distant future. Today’s forage specimen Wild Lettuce, a common garden weed that is quite available this time of the year.

The long leaves of Wild Lettuce are often mistaken for those of a Dandelion, but the latter is more angular than the former.

Note the different root structure, no central taproot and a lot of support roots.

 

Common Name: Wild Lettuce

Other Common Names: Prickly Lettuce, Milk Thistle*, Compass Plant, Scarole.

Botanical Family: Asteraceae (The Aster family)

Botanical Latin Name: Lactuca serriola (aka L. scariola)

Season to Harvest: Spring.

Habitat: Wild lettuce is commonly found in disturbed sites such as fields, by the road side, vacant lots and inevitably in your garden.

Parts to Harvest: The younger leaves are preferred as they are less likely to be bitter. You can eat the mature leaves if you have something to mitigate the bitter flavor like another leaf green in bulk or a decent dressing. Be mindful of this plant’s milky sap.

Poisonous Lookalikes: None known.

Related Edible Species: Canadian Wild Lettuce (L. Canadensis), will grow side-by-side with Wild Lettuce, lacks the prickly parts on the leaves and is more preferred.

Description: Wild lettuce is an annual or biennial herb that can grow to a height of almost six feet by the summer. It is related to Common Dandelions and Chicory and can be confused for either of them before it starts gaining height. The flowers of this plant are very similar to those of Dandelion but they are smaller and more numerous and borne at the top of the plant. Unlike Dandelion or Chicory, Wild lettuce does not for a singular primary taproot and instead forms a number of fibrous roots and a few short but supportive taproots that aid in keeping its eventual stalk steady.

How to Harvest: Harvest young leaves individually and wash as needed to clean them. I recommend sticking them in a bath of water for ten minutes to dilute out the milky latex sap that may come from the wounded side of the leaves.

Recipe: You can use this plant alone or with other greens in a salad, but you will need a robust-flavored vinaigrette. You can boil the leaves in a small amount of water for 2-3 minutes and then serve them with butter and seasonings of your choice. You can also make a field Vinaigrette that pairs well with these cooked leaves by doing the following;

 

Ingredients:

4 slices of bacon

¼ cup of Feta Cheese (if available, and preferably the Greek type)

½ cup of Vinegar

2 Teaspoons of Sugar (honey may also work)

1 Teaspoon of Salt

 

Preparation:

1.      Fry the strips of bacon into a crispy state.

2.      Heat the Vinegar.

3.      Crumble the bacon up and add it, the sugar and the salt into the hit but not boiling vinegar.

4.      Add the Feta cheese (if available) to the hot mix.

5.      Pour over unseasoned but cooked wild lettuce.

 

*Not the same plant as the actual Milk Thistle which is Silybum marianum.

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog.  In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

 

For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.

 

Produce:

Garlic Bulb, $1.00

Soup Kit – Parsnip, $6.00

Soup Kit – Turnip, $6.00

Seasoning Packet, $2.00

 

Houseplants:

Assorted Succulents, Plastic Pot - $5.00

Assorted Succulents, Round Resin Pot - $5.00

Assorted Succulents, Square Resin Pot - $5.00

Assorted Succulents, Hexagon Resin Pot - $10.00

Assorted Succulents, Lattice Resin Pot - $12.00

Assorted Succulents, Bomber Resin Pot - $15.00

Assorted Succulents, Clay Pot - $9.00

 

Garden Stuff: ($3.00 each)

Elephant Garlic

Softneck Garlic

Lettuce – Parris Island Romaine

Lettuce – Cherokee Red

Lettuce – Five Star Lettuce Mix

Beets – Bull’s Blood

Mustard – Red Giant

 

Coming Soon

Kale – Ragged Jack

Kale – Dinosaur

Kale – Tronchuda

Kale – Redbor

Celery – Tango

Kohlrabi – Grand Duke

 

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

 

Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.

 

https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar

 

Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:

 

The Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/curacaovexxor/videos

>Newest videos (5): Chinese Money Plant, Red African Milk Bush, Pencil Cactus, Desert Rose, ‘Prehistoric’ Devils Backbone.

 

 

Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClairs General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on March 16th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.

The Cool Nights Mean Only One Thing

Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, and although this post is just a few days late there’s a bit to cover. Firstly did you know this blog has been in operation since May 11^th 2011? I literally didn’t realize it had been that long but lo and behold I’ve been at it for a while. Keeping a blog alive like this one is an at times difficult endeavor because producing content can be difficult if you are trying not to repeat information. Inevitably you cross your own path even if you do not realize it given time and the nature of the topic of gardening. The test gardens have been the source of material for this blog for all that time as well as interesting events in agriculture in general. Some of you have been with me since the beginning and I am hoping that I will pick up more folks as we move into the next decade. Speaking of the botanical test gardens, the Autumn Botanical Test Garden tour is coming up. I am shooting for the 18^th of October between the hours of 2pm and 5pm. It is hoped that by then we will have seen another reduction in the Covid-19 restrictions and the weather will cooperate. If not, expect to bring masks, and the Rain Date for the event will be the 25^th of October, just before Halloween. By then I can assure you there will be plenty of fall delights for your gardening fancy and you get to see what’s going on in the test gardens. I can tell you this, 2020 despite politics and other crazy things that happened has been an amazing harvest year, so you can expect some impressive information and some ideas that flip the script when it comes to gardening. But let’s move on from the shameless promotions to talk about something big.

 

Now there is another milestone to talk about, this blog has a YouTube channel called LITFM Garden Shorts. I’ve posted some videos on this blog so the two content sites link up but the amazing thing is that as of just a few days ago the Youtube site finally reached its 50^th video. Now I admit videos were produced at a breakneck pace so that a reasonable amount of content could be had before I worked a bit more on quality improvement. Some of you will recall how the early videos were shot using the camera on my smartphone, and the ‘wobble vision’ that resulted. After that I started using a digital camera and a grip to shoot videos and quality improved but there was still an issue with image stability. Soon a tripod was being used and I started shooting the ‘Lab videos’ for smaller plant subjects and quality got better. All of this was to bring you a better garden video where the plants were the focus and you got a fact-based source of garden information that has virtually no comparison. Well, this is just the beginning, for the rest of 2020 the format will not be changed much, but I have some plans for 2021.Starting in 2021, there will be one video per week for a total of fifty-two videos per year. The scripting will be more detailed, and they will be longer videos but you will get more out of them so the reduced production speed will pay off for you. I may have to revisit certain subjects such as perennials that are better established or in a few rare cases where I feel the original video wasn’t as good as it could have been. These plant update videos will be bonuses under the title ‘LITFM Garden Redux –‘. The redone videos won’t count towards the 52 videos but should help you all out there with making decisions on what plants to use in your gardens. It is my hope that I can figure out how to better edit videos and maybe ad an actual intro to my videos but this whole series is as much a learning process for me as it is for you. I hope you all out there will keep reading this blog and watching the videos.

 

Videos and blogs hitting milestones is good and all but, ‘where’s the gardens’ you ask. Well about that, the weather has gotten kind of nice, it’s cool at night and daytime temperatures are bearable in the 70’s. This is like a perfect second spring and it is time to get those cold weather veggies in the ground while you have the chance. You can direct sow the classics like carrots, lettuce, radish, collards and so on or get plants and get them in the ground. It is also a good time to apply a mild fall fertilizer like dried bat guano or chicken manure. My preferred favorite is mushroom compost or composted cow manure depending on how heavy my cool season crops need to feed.  Typically the rule of thumb I operate under is that low to moderate feeders like Mustard, Carrots, Radish, Celery, Arugula, Spinach, Lettuce and Swiss Chard get the mushroom compost. Heavier feeders like Collards, Cabbage, Pak Choi, Kale, Kohlrabi, Cauliflower, Broccoli and Turnips get a trop-dressing of composted cow manure.  I apply regular doses of liquid fertilizer (Alaska fish fertilizer) just to supplement that and ensure soil moisture and the rest is all a matter of sitting back, relaxing and waiting for the harvest to come in. This isn’t rocket surgery, but it does have a certain agri-science to it that follows a set pattern of actions and reactions to produce a desired outcome. I should note as a matter of timing for cold season crops it is normal to start your slowest maturing seeds indoors using bottom heat as early as the second week of August. Normally you progress from your slowest maturing to your fastest as you get into September and then into Early October. The last batch of indoor-germinated seedlings should be out for hardening off or planting by the 15^th of October. Fortunately you can sow certain seeds like Lettuce, Carrots, Radish, Swiss Chard and Arugula directly so if your indoor crop fails you can have a somewhat slower backup plan. This is also the time when you apply mulches to things that need protection against the coming cold weather and a good time to shoe-in those last few desired perennials. Pruning of things is in order as most shrubs are set to go dormant and of course your last mow and trim should be around the second or third week of October as our grasses in NC are all warm-season and won’t grow anymore until next year.

 

One of the other magical things about this time of year is the planting of scores of Pansies and Violas for color that lasts through fall into early summer of next year. Another good candidate are the Snapdragons which are a flower that only bumblebees like and yet they provide nectar and pollen in general for any pollinator that can get into the flowers. Many gardeners in the Southeast forget that snapdragons can take the winter cold of zone 6b, so our 8a cold is not a bother as long as the snapdragons are planted once the night time temperatures remain cool and they  are maintained. Cold season floral color means nectar and pollen for whatever pollinators can fly or move so this is a lifeline to pollinators during the winter that will pay off later. Hanging baskets full of annuals such as Pansies can attract Carolina Wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus) to nest. These small birds which are kind of bland in plumage have impressive songs and a voracious appetite for insect pests. They are your cool-season allies in reducing pests such as cabbage moths and cabbage moth larvae. It may help to maintain a Suet feeder for the wrens and other wild birds during the cold months to make sure your garden is well patrolled for insect pests and you keep some form of rotating bird population. There will be more on this in the next post due to be posted right before the Fall tour but let’s move on to the lovely garden photos for this post.

 

First off is this incredibly lovely picture of what Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans) flowers look like. I think had I planted this earlier the Hummingbirds would have went crazy for it but the best of plans can be mislaid.

Here we have a type of solitary bee, specifically a Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica) on the blooms of a Blue African Basil (Ocimum kilimandscharicum × basilicum 'Dark Opal') plant. Carpenter bees can be a problem to exposed woodwork because they burrow in and build tunnels for nesting. Fortunately these bees while decent pollinators are not very bright and simple wooden bottle traps can eliminate them by the bushel.

 

Here we have the burly looking stems of a Pumpkin Crush American Marigold (Tagetes erecta). When I was turning under annuals and summer crops in pots I started in on the potted marigolds as the first frost would certainly turn them all into soup. I did not expect that marigolds would produce adventitious roots that far up the stem or big chunky stems like that.

 

This picture was taken while out and about town at the day job. These are wild morning glories (Ipomoea purpurea) and the red cup flowers with the bright yellow centers were very striking. I plan to hit that site up to see if I can harvest any seed.

 

Now here's something worth talking about! I thought the Pineapple Sage was only frequented by daytime pollinators but I was wrong. As it turns out one night I happened to shine my flashlight at it and found the entire plant was wiggling. At first I thought I was seeing things then I realized, no there were a crap load of moths going to town for nectar! I don’t know what species these little gray moths are but their little eyes lit up in the unnaturally white light of my LED flashlight.

 

Here for your appreciation is a picture of an Okra blossom. If you had any doubts Okra (Abelmoschus esculentum) is in the Hibiscus/Mallow family consider that laid to rest. Ly last three Okra plants have a temporary reprieve from being turned under with all the other warm season crops because they can reliably produce up until frost.

 

This plant is commonly called Mistflower but I know it as Perennial Ageratum (Conoclinium coelestinum) because of its resemblance to the annual bedding plant with a nearly identical flower.  This plant can be invasive as it spreads moderately fast through rhizomes but is vulnerable to herbicides and manual methods of control. I keep a few colonies of this plant to add color to the property in late summer to early/mid-fall. The sky blue flowers and purple stems are striking and its bigger cousin Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed) adds to the palatte with pinks, purples and, reds. For note the Annual cousin is called Bedding Ageratum (A. houstonianum) and has a bunch of common names revolving around similar terms to the perennial pictured.

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog.

 With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

Food Plants: (3” Peat Pots)
Arugula: $3.00
Cabbage, Ruby Perfection: $3.00
Celery, Tango: $3.00
Collards, Carolina: $3.00
Kale, Lace: $3.00
Kale, Red Russian: $3.00
Kale, Scotch Blue Curled: $3.00
Kohlrabi, Cossak: $3.00
Lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson: $3.00
Lettuce, Cherokee Fire: $3.00
Lettuce, Parris Island: $3.00
Swiss Chard, Red: $3.00
Swiss Chard, Green: $3.00
Spinach, Avon: $3.00

Herbs: (3” Peat Pots)
Black Fennel: $3.00

Coming Soon:
Collards, Alabama Blue
Kale, Marrow Stem
Kale, Rainbow Lacinato
Kale, Lacinato (More available in Two Weeks)
Mustard, Japanese Red Giant (More Available in Two Weeks)

Due to the current Covid-19 situation and the state’s requirement that all citizens are not to gather in groups of more than ten, the weekly Sustainable neighbors meeting is online. Please check the sustainable neighbors Meetup.com page for more info about how to attend our online meeting.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to sign up for anything or join anything, you can come on in and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This brings to a close the nineteenth LITFM post of 2020; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 16^th of October. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

DST Anyone? No? Me neither!

Welcome back to another episode of Lost In The Farmer’s Market,  As you may well know daylight savings time went into effect at 2:00am on Sunday and it is a source of considerable irritation to pretty much everyone. What you don’t know is that it is a myth that it helped farmers use more daylight to perform their tasks. This myth comes from the idea that by getting up earlier somehow you’re getting extra daytime when in fact the number of hours in a given day is give or take the same with adjustments for winter/summer seasons. It’s clearly as much a myth as the old world war two myth that carrots help your eyesight. For note the carrots myth was created by the British military as misinformation to fool the axis powers into not noticing that the British were using radar to find targets. I’ll go out on a limb and say that daylight savings time should be dumped as it literally serves no purpose and any real energy use savings are so tiny that it can’t even be touted as an ecologically useful yearly habit.

But of course this LITFM episode is not about the uselessness of DST, but rather we have a continuing topic of edible weeds, and a rare picture and as if that were not enough we also have a picture of what will be coming to market soon.  But first the main topic, todays subject is a weed that I would imagine everyone who reads this has seen and is very familiar with. It only emerges in the spring and fall once the temperatures tend to top off at about 50-60 degrees and can survive frosts, and winter weather with ease. If you go out and look at any recently disturbed patch of soil or in your planters it is surely growing there.  “Ok so what is this edible weed?” you no doubt want to ask. Well look below for a example

Stellaria media – Common Chickweed

This common garden plant is considered an annual, as it only persists in the cold season but falls apart rapidly during the warm seasons.  There are a few species of chickweed out there with varied edibility standards so this information only pertains to common chickweed.  Common chickweed can be eaten simply by picking the small leaves for use in salad in any amount. The foliage is mild in taste and can be used to effectively counter-balance more pungent leaf greens.  As a pot herb, you would want to cook this one more gently then something like spinach, usually 2-5 minutes at a full boil will suffice and common flavoring additives it needs are butter, a bit of your preferred spices and salt and some chopped onion. Fortunately chickweed has no known poisonous lookalikes, and the entire grouping of true chickweed plants. For note the chickweeds are in the Caryophyllaceae family which is best known for its most famous species the Carnations.

Asarum virginicum - Heartleaf Wild Ginger

This leads to the current photograph of note the flower pictured above is from a perennial cutting of a Wild Ginger plant. Wild gingers are a true wild flower that you plant in a partial-to almost full shade area with decent moisture and forget about. But before you say it, it is not the flower that makes this species special but the evergreen variegated leaves. The leaves are an intense deep green with a silvery-white heart-shaped variegation. Overall a group of these plants forms a nice ground cover that is both exotic looking and well-behaved. It should be said that the wild gingers resemble hardy cyclamen until the bloom and for several months I had the pictures specimen mislabeled until it bloomed just this week. I know the bloom isn’t exactly a show-stopper but it is interesting, and it serves as a biology lesson because you have to ask just what sort of pollinator this flower is intended to attract. My bet is on a beetle or ants as the flowers are very low to the ground and may resemble carrion.

 I get that the angle of this shot is odd but you can see all the current spring crops at once.

We at LITFM are pleased to announce the first spring crops for the market; some of them will be familiar to you, Parris Island Cos Romaine Lettuce, Rouge D’hiver Romaine, Lacinato/Dinosaur Kale, Rosso Di Chioggia Radicchio and, Northern Lights Swiss Chard. In the background you can see the seed starting kits and in them is some good stuff, exotic salad greens and snow peas so sit tight, more of the good stuff is yet to come. Barring bad weather this weekend I plan to bring some of the above listed cold-season crops to market due to your requests. For note most of them were moved up from the cell packs I started them in roughly a week ago.

For those who have not heard, the Fayetteville City Market occurs on Saturdays between the hours of 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM, in all but the absolute worst weather. The market is located on 325 Franklin Street in the front and rear parking lot of the Fayetteville Transportation Museum. The market is a year-round affair unofficially but our official season kicks off in April so stay tuned for the announcement of the market’s big spring celebration. Either way we’re open for business.