Lettuce, ugh | Imamother

chani8

Mon, Mar 18 2013, 1:07 pm

I don't look forward to eating all that bitter lettuce. Mostly, it's bitter because of all the pesticides. I was thinking to use organic lettuce this year. But I cant recall how difficult it can be to check lettuce, nor how much of a bug problem there might be. Anyone know?

Also, can I use only horseradish and not lettuce at all? I think if I grate it and leave it out, it loses it's chariff.

Wait, I think there is one time when we have to eat lettuce, right? I can't use horseradish then, can I?

reed

Mon, Mar 18 2013, 1:37 pm

Personally (health issues aside), I wouldn't use organic produce that requires serious checking. They are usually very infested, and very difficult to nearly-impossible to clean. Those are the ones I buy for "show and tell", when you want to see what can be found on a head of lettuce! I usually buy the Romaine hearts (Andy Boy or similar), which are a premium product grown specifically to be a cleaner, better tasting product. They are lighter in color, which makes it much easier to spot insects, though I rarely find any. Just separate the leaves and soak them in soapy water for a few minutes and rinse, then check.

The process is quite easy, and because the hearts have the sweeter leaves, and aren't very difficult to check, we use these for salad quite often. I buy the large bags (3-6 heads) and check as many as possible at a time. After drying and checking the leaves (much easier to check w/o the water droplets), I pack them in ziploc bags and have enough for several salads. They last much longer this way than the supermarket packages that have been on the truck for who-know-how-long.