Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life

in rural Mississippi

 echo

Secondary menu

Skip to content
  • About Big Food etc.|
  • Big Recipes|
  • Big Dogs Jawin’|
  • Crappy Old Books of the Months|
  • Contact Big Food etc.|
  • Bad Weather|
You are here: Home / 2012 / May / 16 / Lettuce volunteer

Lettuce volunteer

Published on May 16, 2012 by Marica
Kagraner Sommer lettuce: “58 days — It is a good mid-season variety as it is slow to bolt in the summer heat. Originally from Germany, the heads are light green and medium sized. Each packet contains one gram, which is approximately 500 to 600 seeds.” Seed from Victory Seeds.

Oakleaf lettuce: I’ve had one large packet of these seeds for years and they keep germinating!
Butterhead Buttercrunch lettuce: “65 days. Buttercrunch is a vigorous grower with a creamy yellow interior, buttery, flavor and tender texture. Small heads are perfect for a single-serve salad. Loves moist but not soggy soil. The compact size makes it a good container variety.” Seed from Botanical Interests
Each spring, I plant my salad garden in the same raised planters. It’s intense! As in, “intensive gardening”– getting the most out of a given space: lettuce, celery, radishes, spinach, rat-tail radishes, fall radishes, cherry tomatoes, micro-greens, basil, oregano, garden cress, zinnias… . 

 
Each spring,  I look forward to seeing what’s going to volunteer in my salad garden.

Basil volunteers among the red leaf lettuce.
A single rat-tail radish volunteering to extend the radish season. Trust me. One is all we need!

Rat-tail radishes are interesting. The roots get huge– but it’s not the root that’s edible! It’s the seed pods which mature just after it’s gotten too hot for traditional spring radish seeds to germinate.

Last year’s celery gone to seed.

Celery, too, is interesting. From the introduction to growing celery at Gardening Know How:

Growing celery is generally considered to be the ultimate vegetable gardening challenge. It has a very long growing season but a very low tolerance for both heat and cold. There is not much flavor difference between the home grown variety and the store bought variety so most gardeners grow a celery plant purely for the challenge it poses. Read on to find out more about the best way to grow celery in your garden. [My emphasis]

Poppycock! Have you tasted home grown celery? It is far superior to store bought. I will grant that celery is difficult to start inside from seed. And it can collapse in the Mississippi heat. And it does like a lot of peat in the soil. But come on! The “ultimate vegetable gardening challenge”? The celery in the photo, above, volunteered last year and over-wintered. It’s seeds will no doubt volunteer later this summer, and those plants will over-winter so long as I mulch the bed well, and while all of this is going on, we will be eating homegrown celery.

A teeny tiny celery volunteering to fill the cracks on the patio.

This celery will not survive– it’s in the traffic path. But my point is, how can something be the ultimate challenge when it come up in the cracks?

Share responsibly!

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related, or so WordPress thinks!

Posted in Big Garden | Tagged basil, celery, lettuce, radish

Post navigation

← Back on the Farm Scouting Dewberries →

Big Food

Watermelon sorbet
Cookies!
Bacon wrapped quail
Chicken on the grill
Chicken noodle soup
Homemade sausage

Let’s be sociable!

Would love to hear from you-- for real. I just don't do social media but feel free to use the Contact button (above) to get in touch.

Follow along via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to Bigfoodetc. and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Big Garden

Ripen!
Black eyes
Barrow of sweet potatoes
Radishes
Preserved cukes
Shrubbery

Search

Day-by-day

Regular features in addition to spontaneous posts about what the world looks like when seen from the Summit of The Farm, … or a poem I find … or a datum.

Sunday  Travels
Monday  Drudgery At Home
Tuesday  Recipe(s)
Wednesday Pages Past
Thursday  Big Dawgs Jawin’
Friday  in Local News…
Saturday  from Powerline’s TWiP

Big Life

Jerusalem market
On the road again…
Some physics
Fortress in Hungary
Blood moon
All dressed up
Storm’s comin’
A crappy old book
Spread for country mice

Recently, at Big Food etc.

  • A Trip to the Market
  • Chronical: The First Romania School
  • A New Perspective on Crappy Old Books
  • Christmas! Time for strudel!
  • Pancakes with apricot jam
  • Let’s set aside content for a moment

Windy: See for yourself!

It's interactive! See for yourself.

Gathering information on impending bad weather

  • Gathering Information on Bad Weather Pt. 1: How not to prepare
  • Gathering Information on Bad Weather Pt. 2: Tell me
  • Watch the Clouds
  • Cloud Watching
  • Cows
  • Buy Ballot’s Law (1857)
  • Gathering Information on Bad Weather Pt. 3: I’ll see for myself (1a)
  • All together now, “How could you be so careless, Marica?”
  • Gathering Information on Bad Weather Pt. 3: I’ll see for myself (1b)
  • Radar Scope update
  • Gathering Information on Bad Weather Pt. 3: I’ll see for myself (2)

Book of This Month: Miss Manner’s Guide To Rearing Perfect Children

  • Life is difficult and we can’t always get what we want
  • Insulting is such a favorite human pastime
  • Miss Manners

Crappy Old Books of The Months

had been dormant for some time, but is now revived! For previous Books of the Month, see the header, or scroll down.

Tags

2016 Dinner Party America America--what's left of it Aristotle art artists BBQ beans behavior biology birds blackeyes blog bread burgers cabbage cake calendar chicken children civility conversations cookbooks country country mice culture deer dinner party drudgery experts fall family family traditions farm FBacon fishing football freedom grammar guns heritage history homemaking hurricanes independence liberty life life and death manners meal planning Memphis mississippi Mississippi politics Missy music new stuff old stuff Oxford peppers philosophy pickles pie poem poetry politics potatoes preparedness recipes rednecks rights Rocky salad Saturday/Sunday supper sausage science SEC seeds silliness snow soup spring squash statistics summer sweet potatoes tailgate Texas Thanksgiving The Girls The South tiger tomatoes tornadoes travel travels TSUN TWiP US Gov't winter words

Top Posts & Pages

  • Recipe: Jesse Jackson's Sweet Potato Pie
    Recipe: Jesse Jackson's Sweet Potato Pie
  • A Trip to the Market
    A Trip to the Market
  • Recipe: Creative Cooking Sausage Lyonnaise with French Mustard
    Recipe: Creative Cooking Sausage Lyonnaise with French Mustard
  • Recipe: Stephen Pyles' Smoked Chicken
    Recipe: Stephen Pyles' Smoked Chicken
  • Recipe: North Carolina Barbecue Sandwich with Pork Barbecue and Lexington Barbecue Sauce
    Recipe: North Carolina Barbecue Sandwich with Pork Barbecue and Lexington Barbecue Sauce
  • A New Perspective on Crappy Old Books
    A New Perspective on Crappy Old Books
  • Chronical: The First Romania School
    Chronical: The First Romania School
  • Recipe: Sue's Ma's Fruitcake
    Recipe: Sue's Ma's Fruitcake
  • Recipe: Homemade Pennsylvania Dutch Sausage
    Recipe: Homemade Pennsylvania Dutch Sausage
  • Recipe: Bob's Red Mill Basic Italian Polenta
    Recipe: Bob's Red Mill Basic Italian Polenta

Categories

  • Uncategorized
  • Big Food
    • food photos
    • Big recipes
  • Big Garden
    • garden photos
  • Big Life
    • life photos
    • life beyond the gate
    • people
    • silliness
    • sports
  • Big Dogs
    • Big dogs jawin'
  • Crappy Old Books
    • photos of photos
    • quotes
    • Books of the Months
  • Weather
  • Miss M
  • Daughter C
  • Kat
  • Anniversaries & Holidays
    • Christmas
    • New Years
    • Easter
    • Memorial Day
    • Independence Day
    • Labor Day
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Mother's Day
    • Columbus Day
  • Techno
  • PhilSci
  • The Summit (my view of the world)
  • WTH? No category?
  • Pages Past

Big!

Wash day
Volunteer zinnias
Homemade cold tomato soup
Farm pals
Big Life
Centerpiece by Tony

Back to the top

Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life

Mr. Big Food’s latest book

Engineering the Next Revolution in Neuroscience: The New Science of Experiment Planning in collaboration with UCLA neuroscientist Alcino J. Silva, and neuroinformaticist (& fellow stats geek, and son-in-law) Anthony Landreth

Engineering the Next Revolution in Neuroscience

A good book by Mr. Big Food

Philosophy and Neuroscience: A Ruthlessly Reductive Account

Another good book & popular reference work edited by Mr. Big Food

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Neuroscience

A classic textbook that will help you be a better thinker

Understanding Scientific Reasoning (co-authored)

Mr. Big Food’s first crappy old book

Psychoneural Reduction: The New Wave

Archives

  • 2019 (658)
  • 2018 (231)
  • 2017 (197)
  • 2016 (495)
  • 2015 (727)
  • 2014 (373)
  • 2013 (882)
  • 2012 (878)
  • 2011 (182)

Thank you!

Thank you very much for scrolling down this far! We very much appreciate your interest in bigfoodetc.com. Tell your friends.

Have a nice day. Say "Hey" to your mama & them,

~~ Marica & the gang at bigfoodetc.com

Back to the top of

Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life

Recent Posts

  • A Trip to the Market
  • Chronical: The First Romania School
  • A New Perspective on Crappy Old Books
  • Christmas! Time for strudel!
  • Pancakes with apricot jam
  • Let’s set aside content for a moment
  • What would late fall be
  • Hehe
  • It just ain’t right
  • Global export
  • Imperatives
  • Settle in
  • Sharing. Your thoughts?
  • How strange
  • Its not such a bad little state, Charlie Brown.
  • The day after
  • This is a 20+ Pound Turkey
  • Thanksgiving Turkey
  • The Children’s Corner
  • “Catching the Thanksgiving Turkey”
  • Happy Thanksgiving!
  • The morning news
  • Party on, dude!
  • Back in the day
  • What a Week!

Back to the top of

Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life

Books of the Months: Bacon’s Essays

  • Why Bacon’s Essays?
  • Your Morning Bacon: 3 Slices
  • Morning Bacon: Just one slice, I’ve got to eat & run
  • Morning Bacon
  • Who is Fra Bacon?
  • Morning Bacon: A plateful
  • Bacon!
  • Some Bacon for Friday the 13th
  • “Of Marriage and Single Life”
  • Who is Lord Bacon? (Abridged)
  • “Of Custom and Education”
  • “Of Nature in Men”
  • “Of Adversity”
  • “Of Negotiating”
  • “Of Cunning”
  • Of Studies
  • “Of Discourse”
  • The next age
  • Who was Francis Bacon? (Seriously)

Hit Parade! 2011-2015

  1. Recipe: Jesse Jackson’s Sweet Potato Pie a Pinterest favorite!
  2. They grow up so fast.
  3. Crockett’s Victory Garden: Who is Jim Crockett?
  4. “So Long till Next Year”
  5. Recipe: Blue Bonnet Cafe Meatloaf
  6. It’s not her style
  7. Recipe: Randy’s Clay Pot Roasted Chicken with Leeks and Apples (1/26/19– I remember this! It’s fantastic.)
  8. Recommendation: New Hope Seed Company
  9. Recipe: North Carolina Barbecue Sandwich with Pork Barbecue and Lexington Barbecue Sauce 
  10. Recipe: Brunswick Stew of Old Dixie

Books of the months: Anniversaries and Holidays

  • Why Anniversaries and Holidays?
  • Happy Birthday, President Houston!
  • How Ignernt Am I?
  • Ring Ring … Ring Ring
  • Service to Country
  • Imagine it gone
  • 250 Years Ago Today
  • Amerigo! Amerigo!
  • Every Seventh Notch
  • “The Ides of March have come”
  • Sweet
  • Top of the mornin’ to ya!
  • Give me Liberty
  • Sun & Moon
  • St. Gabriel
  • July & August
  • Chapter 15
  • Lady Day
  • The WWW has failed me, yet again
  • Two Roads
  • Chronicles of America
  • “The Revolt of Islam”
  • Things we missed
  • Cogito, dude.

Hit Parade! 2016

  1. Recipe: Jesse Jackson’s Sweet Potato Pie
  2. Recipe: Spicy Frozen Cucumbers  NEW!
  3. A Cross with No Church NEW!
  4. Recipe: Creative Cooking Sausage Lyonnaise with French Mustard NEW!
  5. 4BR, 2bath NEW!
  6. Recipe: Blue Bonnet Café Meatloaf NEW!
  7. Recipe: The Frugal Gourmet’s French Onion Soup NEW!
  8. Recipe: Polish Duck Sausage NEW!
  9. Recipe: Better Homes & Garden Dill Pickles and Kosher Variations NEW!
  10. Recipe: Homemade Pennsylvania Dutch Sausage NEW!

Books of the Months: Science in Your Own Backyard

  • Crappy Old Book of the Month: (late) May Edition
  • Talk about Back Yard Science! Wooo Boy!
  • WARNING!! or not: Science in Your Own Back Yard
  • The Tools of Science, ca. 1958
  • Do NOT Try This with Fire Ants!
  • Science in Your Own Back Yard: The End
  • “The purpose of this book” is simple

Hit Parade! 2017

  1. A Cross with No Church
  2. Recipe: Homemade Pennsylvania Dutch Sausage
  3. Recipe: Jesse Jackson’s Sweet Potato Pie
  4. Recipe: The Frugal Gourmet’s French Onion Soup
  5. Call 662-xxx-xxxx NEW!
  6. Recipe: Taco Peppers in Electric Skillet NEW!
  7. Recipe: Creative Cooking Sausage Lyonnaise with French Mustard
  8. Recipe: Blue Bonnet Café Meatloaf
  9. Crockett’s Victory Garden: Who is Jim Crockett?
  10. Recipe: Randy’s Clay Pot Roasted Chicken with Leeks and Apples

Books of the Months: Horizon: A Magazine of the Arts

  • Sorry Indeed
  • Well, this is outrageous!
  • Crappy Old Books of November: Look to the Past’s Horizon
  • Mermaids
  • At random
  • Sampling 1961
  • Nice boots you got there, hippie

Hit Parade! 2018

  1. Recipe: Homemade Pennsylvania Dutch Sausage
  2. Recipe: Jesse Jackson’s Sweet Potato Pie
  3. Recipe: The Frugal Gourmet’s French Onion Soup
  4. A Cross with No Church
  5. Recipe: Taco Peppers in Electric Skillet
  6. Recipe: Little Joe’s Meatballs and Spaghetti Sauce NEW!
  7. Recipe: MRS. NEMECEK’S KOLACHES AND FILLINGS NEW!
  8. Recipe: Better Homes & Garden Dill Pickles and Kosher Variations
  9. Recipe: Ancient Roman Bread NEW!
  10. Birthing a Lamb NEW!

Books of the Months: Currier & Ives

  • “The Battle of Jonesboro Georgia Sept. 1st 1864”
  • New York? Cotton? Country Life? Mississippi?
  • Seen in West Point, Mississippi
  • The Great Bartholdi Statue
  • How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood
  • A Cotton Plantation on the Mississippi
  • “The Great Victory in the Shenandoah Valley”
  • “The Battle of Chickamauga, Geo.”
  • Add to Basket
  • Reviews
  • Life in the Country: “The Morning Ride” | Alt. Title: The Unbearable Lightness of the Horse & Buggy Older Model Taurus Edition
  • “Rounding the Bend” on the Mississippi
  • Still Burning
  • “Battle of Corinth, Miss., Oct. 4, 1862”

Books of the Months: American Voices

  • “Scheming”: What a Great Word!
  • Not too good
  • An Audience
  • Fair enough?
  • The Benefit of Law
  • “Who are these people…?”
  • Quite Simply,
  • American Voices
  • “A Future American History Reviewed”

Back to the top of

Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life

Copyright © 2019 Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life.

Powered by WordPress and Cakifo.

© Marica C. Bernstein and Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life (Big Food etc.), 2011-2019. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without written permission from Marica C. Bernstein is prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit is given to Marica C. Bernstein and Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life (Big Food etc.) with specific direction to the original content.

This web site quotes previously published works. The authors of Big Food, Big Garden, Big Life (Big Food etc.) make reasonable effort to include proper citation for all quotes, including those whose copyright has expired. Citation errors or omissions are unintentional. Please contact the site administrator if citation correction is needed.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: