4 ms·

> Take your pick from a multitude of cold-season vegetables – beets, carrots, lettuce and other salad leaves, onions, spinach, chard, radishes and turnips – and

> Take your pick from a multitude of cold-season vegetables – beets, carrots, lettuce and other salad leaves, onions, spinach, chard, radishes and turnips – and sow knowing that you’ll be picking and plucking within weeks. Lettuce is one of those vegetables, that once it gets contaminated with bacteria, you are kind of screwed. You can really wash it off and lettuce is usually eaten raw. Having it grown in a pile of manure may make it harder to keep from being contaminated.

chongli 4y ago
You can totally cook lettuce and eat it. It's healthy and tastes just fine. A quick blanch in boiling water is all it takes.
- ggm 4y ago
  Cos or Romaine hearts cut into quarters and whacked on a grill for some charring is pretty good too. "Horta" is any green leaves you like, blanched and served with oil and lemon. Sure, it tends to be Dandelion or Rocket or whatever, but I don't think it's specified by the greek ya-yas, its whatever is to hand.
  - bradknowles 4y ago
    Grilled Hispy (?) Cabbage is apparently a thing in cuisine in the UK, if Great British Menu is anything to go by. Typically grilled on an actual fire, at least in most of the episodes I've seen.
    - ggm 4y ago
      I am just back from a trip to Yokohama and was served steamed cabbage heart which had been put into a wooden steamer and cooked over a charcoal fire. It was both steamy-soft, and smokey and delicious to offset the yakitori. I think cabbage is a universal in climates with a real winter: its hardy, it grows into the colder months if you let it, its viable for pickling and salting, and flatulance aside is great nourishment. Shame that kids hate it, but eh, the ones which survive fatten up fast on it, so there's protein latent in cabbage if you need it. Cabbage in school meals in the 60s was indeed served in an ice-cream scoop puddle next to the mince and tatties (or haggis, being scotland)
      - euroderf 4y ago
        I was raised on iceberg lettuce - IMHO bitter biowaste - and discovered the joys of cabbage only later in life. My point being: If you're used to lettuce, give shredded cabbage a try. Not cole slaw, smothered in mayo. Try it with (say) a bit of sesame oil and some sesame seeds.
    - yetanotherloser 4y ago
      I think it's just a recent fad, but it's a fad I'm quite enjoying.
- selimthegrim 4y ago
  I take it you have some exposure to Chinese cuisine?
  - chongli 4y ago
    Yep! Stir fried greens in a simple garlic and chilli sauce is one of my favourite dishes!
  - ramraj07 4y ago
    That’s just a quick Blanche though, not something I’d take as having a sterilizing effect.
    - scns 4y ago
      For that you'd need an autoclave or pressure cooker with a temperature above 100°C and more time. Sorry for being a pedantically correct pedant ;)
      - ramraj07 4y ago
        Not sure I understand what you’re trying to correct. I only said the Chinese cooking methods don’t exactly sterilize.
  - Leo_Germond 4y ago
    If you're not into chinese cooking, there is also some cooked lettuce in French cuisine, with petit pois à la française. That's in season too!
- Scoundreller 4y ago
  Usually not lettuce, but I’ll throw cut kale and spinach into soups or stirfries all the time. Sometimes fresh, other times frozen.
blahblah1234567 4y ago
[dead]
chrsstrm 4y ago
> Having it grown in a pile of manure may make it harder to keep from being contaminated I hope you don't buy organic vegetables because have I got some news for you... Between copious amounts of manure and liquified fish as fertilizer, you could always tell by the smell which farmers were looking to cash in on organic produce.
- Alex3917 4y ago
  > Between copious amounts of manure and liquified fish as fertilizer, you could always tell by the smell which farmers were looking to cash in on organic produce. Why would anyone fertilize their crops right before harvesting them for sale? This makes literally zero sense, as it would just be throwing away money. It's like the urban legends about people lacing marijuana with 100% pure cocaine or whatever.
  - chrsstrm 4y ago
    > Why would anyone fertilize their crops right before harvesting them for sale? That was neither said or implied.
    - Alex3917 4y ago
      Fish fertilizer and manure-based fertilizer only smell for a day or two, so it very much is implied.
      - tchaffee 4y ago
        It wasn't implied. Instead you are wrongly inferring. Now imagine you live in the area and drive by the farms. You could always tell by the smell which farmers were trying to cash in on organic crops.
- bagels 4y ago
  Some ecoli outbreaks are caused by human feces on the crops due to poor working conditions on the farms. https://time.com/3974244/cilantro-feces/ https://time.com/3974244/cilantro-feces/

chongli 4y ago

You can totally cook lettuce and eat it. It's healthy and tastes just fine. A quick blanch in boiling water is all it takes.

ggm 4y ago
Cos or Romaine hearts cut into quarters and whacked on a grill for some charring is pretty good too. "Horta" is any green leaves you like, blanched and served with oil and lemon. Sure, it tends to be Dandelion or Rocket or whatever, but I don't think it's specified by the greek ya-yas, its whatever is to hand.
- bradknowles 4y ago
  Grilled Hispy (?) Cabbage is apparently a thing in cuisine in the UK, if Great British Menu is anything to go by. Typically grilled on an actual fire, at least in most of the episodes I've seen.
  - ggm 4y ago
    I am just back from a trip to Yokohama and was served steamed cabbage heart which had been put into a wooden steamer and cooked over a charcoal fire. It was both steamy-soft, and smokey and delicious to offset the yakitori. I think cabbage is a universal in climates with a real winter: its hardy, it grows into the colder months if you let it, its viable for pickling and salting, and flatulance aside is great nourishment. Shame that kids hate it, but eh, the ones which survive fatten up fast on it, so there's protein latent in cabbage if you need it. Cabbage in school meals in the 60s was indeed served in an ice-cream scoop puddle next to the mince and tatties (or haggis, being scotland)
    - euroderf 4y ago
      I was raised on iceberg lettuce - IMHO bitter biowaste - and discovered the joys of cabbage only later in life. My point being: If you're used to lettuce, give shredded cabbage a try. Not cole slaw, smothered in mayo. Try it with (say) a bit of sesame oil and some sesame seeds.
  - yetanotherloser 4y ago
    I think it's just a recent fad, but it's a fad I'm quite enjoying.
selimthegrim 4y ago
I take it you have some exposure to Chinese cuisine?
- chongli 4y ago
  Yep! Stir fried greens in a simple garlic and chilli sauce is one of my favourite dishes!
- ramraj07 4y ago
  That’s just a quick Blanche though, not something I’d take as having a sterilizing effect.
  - scns 4y ago
    For that you'd need an autoclave or pressure cooker with a temperature above 100°C and more time. Sorry for being a pedantically correct pedant ;)
    - ramraj07 4y ago
      Not sure I understand what you’re trying to correct. I only said the Chinese cooking methods don’t exactly sterilize.
- Leo_Germond 4y ago
  If you're not into chinese cooking, there is also some cooked lettuce in French cuisine, with petit pois à la française. That's in season too!
Scoundreller 4y ago
Usually not lettuce, but I’ll throw cut kale and spinach into soups or stirfries all the time. Sometimes fresh, other times frozen.

blahblah1234567 4y ago

[dead]

chrsstrm 4y ago

> Having it grown in a pile of manure may make it harder to keep from being contaminated I hope you don't buy organic vegetables because have I got some news for you... Between copious amounts of manure and liquified fish as fertilizer, you could always tell by the smell which farmers were looking to cash in on organic produce.

Alex3917 4y ago
> Between copious amounts of manure and liquified fish as fertilizer, you could always tell by the smell which farmers were looking to cash in on organic produce. Why would anyone fertilize their crops right before harvesting them for sale? This makes literally zero sense, as it would just be throwing away money. It's like the urban legends about people lacing marijuana with 100% pure cocaine or whatever.
- chrsstrm 4y ago
  > Why would anyone fertilize their crops right before harvesting them for sale? That was neither said or implied.
  - Alex3917 4y ago
    Fish fertilizer and manure-based fertilizer only smell for a day or two, so it very much is implied.
    - tchaffee 4y ago
      It wasn't implied. Instead you are wrongly inferring. Now imagine you live in the area and drive by the farms. You could always tell by the smell which farmers were trying to cash in on organic crops.
bagels 4y ago
Some ecoli outbreaks are caused by human feces on the crops due to poor working conditions on the farms. https://time.com/3974244/cilantro-feces/ https://time.com/3974244/cilantro-feces/