Miniature Butterhead Lettuce Tom Thumb - Lactuca sativa

The Tom Thumb Lettuce is a tiny butterhead lettuce that forms pretty compact heads with crinkled leaves and a very mild flavor. It is an early variety that grows quickly and can be well cultivated in winter under a greenhouse and in open ground or even in pots in summer. Sow from March to August for a harvest from June to October.

If Lettuce is one of the most popular vegetables (consumed at a rate of 4.2 kilograms per person per year), it is appreciated for its freshness, crispness, as well as its taste and nutritional qualities. It can be eaten raw in salads but also cooked, for example, to accompany peas.

As the ultimate leaf vegetable, Lettuce is an annual plant that belongs to the large family of Asteraceae. Its Latin name, Lactuca sativa, refers both to the white sap (lactuca) that oozes when it is 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.

Growing Lettuce is easy as long as you follow the cultivation calendar for each variety. Its growth is fast and it thrives in any soil, provided it is rich and remains moist.

Harvest: Simply cut the Lettuces when they are well developed.

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 harvesting. Freezing cooked Lettuce is also possible.

Gardener's tip: A real nightmare for gardeners, slugs and snails love lettuce leaves. When the hunt is on, we must admit that we are ready to do anything to repel or eliminate them: the ash string (which will quickly be leached by rain), the homemade trap filled with beer (which hedgehogs get drunk on until they pass out), the copper strips that are supposed to electrocute them (which only tickle them a little).

Instead of wasting your time and, incidentally, your lettuces, we recommend using an anti-slug product composed of ferric phosphate known as Ferramol. Unlike metaldehyde-based slug killers, which are dangerous to wildlife and polluting, Ferramol is natural, non-toxic, and very effective as long as you remember to "treat" your plot a few days before sowing.