Butterhead Lettuce Grand-mère à feuilles rouges - Lactuca sativa

The Grandmother Red Leaf Lettuce is a hardy winter variety that produces large and firm heads. Its leaves turn more or less red depending on the severity of the winter. Its slow growth is what gives it its name. Sow from August to October. Harvest from March to May the following year.

If Lettuce is one of the most popular vegetables (4.2 kilograms per person per year), it is equally valued for its freshness, crispness, and taste. It can be eaten raw in salads, but also cooked, for example, to accompany peas.
As the quintessential leaf vegetable, Lettuce is an annual plant that belongs to the large Asteraceae family. Its Latin name, Lactuca sativa, refers both to the white sap (lactuca) that flows when cut and to the fact that it is cultivated (sativa).
It is an essential vegetable in any respectable vegetable garden, and there are so many varieties that it can be grown almost all year round. Lettuce is easy to grow as long as you follow the cultivation calendar for each variety. It grows quickly and thrives in any soil, as long as it is rich and remains moist.

Harvest: Simply cut it with a knife when it reaches maturity.

Storage: Lettuce can be stored for a few days in the refrigerator, but to enjoy its freshness to the fullest, we recommend consuming it immediately after harvest.

Gardener's tip: During hot summer days, lettuce exposed to direct sunlight tends to wilt. To avoid this, consider protecting them from intense rays by using overturned crates. In our garden, summer lettuce is not grown in rows but interspersed throughout: at the base of climbing beans, in the middle of cucumbers and squash, whose foliage provides beneficial shade.