Winter Lettuce Val d'Orge - Lactuca sativa

Lactuca sativa 'Val d'Orge' is a highly cold-resistant winter lettuce. It forms voluminous, moderately tight heads composed of large smooth, blonde-green leaves. This hardy variety can be sown from August to October for a harvest from March to May.

Lettuce is one of the most popular salad vegetables (with a consumption of 4.2 kilograms per person per year). It is equally appreciated for its freshness, crispness, its taste, and nutritional qualities. It can be consumed raw in salads, but also cooked, to accompany peas, for example.

As the ultimate leafy vegetable, lettuce is an annual plant belonging to the large Asteraceae family. 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 important part of any respectable vegetable garden, and there are so many varieties that it can be cultivated almost all year round. Winter lettuces are hardy and resistant to the cold. Their development is slower than summer lettuces, so they should be sown in late summer/early autumn for a spring harvest.

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

Harvest: cut with a knife when it reaches maturity.

Storage: lettuce can be stored for a few days in the refrigerator, but to fully enjoy its freshness, we recommend consuming it immediately after harvesting. It is also possible to freeze cooked lettuce.

Gardener's tip: slugs and snails are a nightmare for gardeners as they love lettuce leaves. You can try to prevent them with ashes (which are quickly washed away by rain), a homemade beer trap (which is harmful to hedgehogs), or copper strips that are supposed to electrocute them, but do not seem to work. Instead of wasting time with these methods, use an anti-slug product composed of ferric phosphate known as Ferramol. Unlike slug pellets based on metaldehyde, which are dangerous for 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.