Fresh Thoughts Of Becoming Crispy Is Nifty
When growing our own salad garden, almost as soon as the plants become recognizable, I begin to thin them, and use the thinnings in the first salad bowls of the season.
I try to work in a few second sowings, which in the limited space takes ingenuity. As I use up the best of the lettuce, or as I scratch the peat moss into the bed, I sometimes have a bit of space in which to sow a few seeds for a later crop.
I like to gather greens in the early morning, when they are crisp and perhaps dew covered. Then it is a pleasure to nibble and make the selections for the day.
No matter how I do it, I still find washing a chore. If the beds are well mulched and thickly planted, there is a little less dirt to wash off.
Having washed as carefully as patience permits, I spread the leaves out on layers of towels, and stack them very lightly in the vegetable crisper. When I am ready to use them the leaves will be cool, crisp and dry.
A salad to me means a green salad, but I do recognize a few additions and variations, such as radishes, rings of red onions, scallions, green pepper; and tiny green beans. Cucumbers, I think, should be crisp, and they get soggy and limp with the greens, even though they do add flavor. I prefer them served separately.
he same is true of ordinary tomatoes. They are too good by themselves to be thrown in the bowl of greens where the juice runs out and dilutes the dressing. The tiny cherry, or pear-shaped, salad tomatoes can be put in whole and make an attractive addition without ruining the crispness of the greens.
The variety, even of lettuces – made every day’s salad a delight, and each salad a little different from those we had before. Such salads are impossible unless you grow your own greens and can pick and choose from a dozen to 20 different kinds with an endless number of combinations.
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