For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."
why you should eat bolted lettuce (+ my favorite edible seed pods)
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This time of year, my garden looks a little wild because I let most of my plants go to seed. I've got 4-foot-tall arugula blooming profusely, bolted lettuce towering over my other leafy greens, basil growing gangly and sending up spikes of purple flowers, and radish plants falling over with long stems covered in thin, pointy seed pods. Most people might look at that scene and assume the harvest season is over. But me? I see new textures and flavors to explore from plants that aren't quite ready to give up yet. Take bolted lettuce, for instance. Everyone pulls out their lettuce once it bolts because the leaves start to turn bitter—and it's certainly very different from what you think lettuce is supposed to taste like. But if you're a fan of more bitter greens like collards, radicchio, mustard, or dandelion greens, don't pass up an opportunity to harvest a head of bolted lettuce or pick the leaves individually for a few more weeks. They're still completely edible, at least until the leaves become too brown and old and unappetizing. But if they're green and tender and undamaged? Go for it! (Bolted lettuce, in particular, has anti-inflammatory properties, anti-cancer potential, and many other medicinal benefits due to those bitter compounds.) Even if you don't love bitter greens, that doesn't mean you should shun your bolted lettuce. Seed pods are another "vegetable" I like to eat, and they're kind of a delicacy because I only get them once a year. In my house, we love radish pods. You won't find them in grocery stores, specialty markets or even farmers' markets. They're like a little secret among gardeners and farmers, a bonus harvest that you have to wait all season for. I just picked hundreds (thousands?) of seed pods from a bed of radishes that I purposely allowed to go to seed. The pods are crisp with a mildly peppery flavor, and I love to eat them raw in salads or pickle them to go with other meals, like BBQ or potato salad or bloody Marys (yes, I consider a good bloody Mary a meal 😄). Be sure to grab my recipe for pickled radish pods here. They're delicious!! If you grow nasturtiums, the light green seed pods are another end-of-season harvest that often gets overlooked. They have a bold, mustardy flavor and tender texture that makes them a great substitute for capers. (But be sure to let some seeds mature on the vines so you can collect them for next year.) P.S. The harvest season's not over yet. Learn how to eat bolted lettuce, turn radish seed pods into pickles, and make poor man's capers with nasturtium seeds. P.P.S. You can easily double or triple your garden harvests, all from the vegetables, herbs, and flowers you're already growing. The secret is knowing what all the edible parts of the plants are and how to use them.
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Garden Betty
For people who want to grow more food with less work. 🌱 This is my weekly newsletter loved by 38,000+ subscribers—here's what one of them had to say: "These are not the regular run-of-the-mill garden-based emails. You actually touch on more unusual tidbits that encourage me to keep growing and learning."