Mache Lettuce

For many years, I have managed to maintain a bed of Mache lettuce, also known as Corn or Lamb's lettuce. It's truly a wonderful winter crop that is easy to grow without giving it much attention until harvest time from December through mid-March. Valerianella locusta is a delicious and nutritious salad ingredient, and I often mix it with arugula, finely chopped red cabbage, and the greens of my ever-present Egyptian Walking Onions. I make a toasted sesame garlic dressing and voila - no need to go out for dinner. 

 

While Mache is almost completely maintenance-free in my garden (I think the slugs have abandoned my yard due to consecutive drought years), it takes a bit of time to clean it and get it ready for a great complement to a variety of main dishes from Thai curry to baked winter squashes with apples and sausage. I let most of my Mache go to seed in May, and as soon as the rains start again, it will sprout and serve as cover crop as well as delicious salad addition.

 

You can see how I get the dirt off the Valeriana roots in the second picture - a big bowl is all that's necessary before trimming them off, together with any not-so-good-looking leaves. The small red cabbages complement the Mache perfectly, and the ones depicted have been the third harvest from the plants that I started in fall of 2021 from Lauren Muscatine's seed library in my neighborhood (check it out on Tanglewood Way in North Napa, if you haven't been there yet). The cabbage plants are still in my keyhole garden and keep sprouting new plants after I harvest ever-smaller cabbages. I think it's time to plant new starts now - but in a different bed.