Lettuce is like conversation, it must be fresh and crisp; so sparkling that you scarcely notice the bitter in it. ” Charles Dudley Warner
As our weather turns from winter to spring, I start to crave green salads. Our spring weather is cool along the coast and is the perfect time to grow most varieties of lettuce for fresh spring salads. Lettuce is an annual vegetable and a member of the Lactuca sativa or daisy family. If you let your lettuce “bolt” or go to seed, it will produce 2- to 3-foot-long stems with small daisy-like flower heads.
The culinary use of lettuce dates back more than 4,500 years. Christopher Columbus is said to have introduced lettuce to the New World.
There are four main types of lettuce: butterhead (Boston and bibb), crisphead (iceberg), cos (romaine) and loose-leaf (oak, red- and green-leafed). The outer leaves of loose-leaf lettuce can be harvested, leaving the center of the plant intact. This way, the lettuce can continue to grow and produce more leaves for your salad. Mesclun is a mixture of baby lettuce and spring greens in a variety of colors and textures.
Other types of greens, such as arugula, chicory, escarole, Mache (lamb’s leaf) and radicchio, lend flavor and color to your salad. The addition of fresh young herbs will enhance your salad even more ” try Italian flat-leafed parsley, basil, cilantro and dill. Newly sprouted infant greens and vegetables known as micro-greens add not only flavor and texture but also important nutrients. Nasturtiums, borage, alstroemeria, fuchsia, pansies, violas and lavender flowers are considered edible flowers, if grown organically. Nasturtium leaves can also be eaten, and they add a peppery bite to salads. Edible flowers not only add color, they can become quite a conversation piece at the dinner table.
Salad greens are filled with vitamins A, B, C and K, along with potassium, magnesium, calcium, beta-carotene, iron, foliate and fiber. Essential photochemicals that fight many diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, are abundantly present in greens. While darker greens have more nutritional content, all salad greens boast nutrients in varying degrees. Using a mix of different varieties of greens in your salad will help you to get the most nutritional benefits.
Lettuce and most salad greens are easy to grow, either from seed or by picking up small plants in six-pack or 4-inch containers. Local nurseries are stocking up on different varieties that grow well during the spring. Crisphead is probably the most difficult lettuce to grow, while the loose-leafed and cos varieties are the easiest. Not only good to eat, lettuce is as attractive to look at in your garden as it is in your salad bowl.
I recently picked up several varieties of “designer” lettuce at Walter Anderson’s Nursery in Point Loma that I am growing in containers. Mascara is a thick, curly, purple-red-leafed lettuce that is perfect for harvesting as baby greens; Forellenschluss is a dark green romaine whose green leaves are beautifully splashed with wine-red color speckles; and “Rossa di Trento” is a frilly, red-tipped variety from Italy. Placed in a sunny area and periodically fed with a balanced (15-15-15) organic fertilizer, these plants that came in 4-inch pots will mature in 45 to 65 days.
Another way to enjoy fresh salad greens is to have Seabreeze Organic Farm deliver them right to your door each week. Seabreeze is a 2-acre organic farm nestled in the hills overlooking the ocean, right in the middle of the growing urban sprawl of Sorrento and Carmel valleys. As you enter the farm’s gates, the hustle and bustle of the harried world only blocks away disappears, and you are surrounded by the beauty of nature and magnificent produce. Nurtured and run by Stephenie Caughlin for the past 21 years, the farm supplies fresh organic produce, with an emphasis on greens, to more than 125 families in nearby areas of San Diego.
“We are small in size but mighty in production,” says Caughlin, who grows everything at her farm with careful consideration for the earth and without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
Organic gardening is a time-consuming labor of love, something rare in today’s profit-oriented corporate farm industry. Seabreeze Organic Farm produces high-quality vegetables, flowers (many are edible), herbs, micro-greens and fruit that change with the seasons “” you can truly taste the difference. The farm also has fresh eggs from heirloom varieties of chickens. Thursday is the delivery day for La Jolla, Pacific Beach and Mission Beach.
For more information, visit www.seabreezed.com or call (858) 481-0209.
Try one of my favorite salads this spring”¦

Spring Greens with Goat Cheese Crostini
4 Servings
8 cups of colorful mixed baby spring lettuce and greens
1 cup edible flowers, if desired
Dressing:
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons minced shallot
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
Crostini:
8 slices of baguette (1/4 inch thick)
4 oz. soft goat cheese
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil plus extra for brushing on baguette
1 teaspoon minced fresh Italian parsley
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
½ teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1 garlic clove, ground to a paste with 1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make dressing: Marinate shallot in vinegar for one hour, then whisk in the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Make crostini: Mash goat cheese, olive oil, herbs and garlic paste in bowl and season with pepper. Brush one side of baguette slices with olive oil and toast at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden. Remove from oven and spread goat cheese mixture on untoasted side of bread. Bake in a 400-degree oven for 10 minutes or until cheese begins to soften and melt.
Toss salad greens with just enough dressing to lightly coat the leaves and season with more salt and pepper, if desired. Place the salad on individual plates and serve the warm crostini alongside.
” Linda Marrone is a local Realtor with Coldwell Banker who specializes in historic and architecturally designed homes. She is a co-founder of the Secret Garden Tour of Old La Jolla, which benefits the La Jolla Historical Society and enjoys working in her historic garden every chance she gets. www.LindaMarrone.com, (858) 456-3224 voicemail.