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Tag: Lettuces

  • The Food Forward Garden, by Christian Douglas: A Manual that Explains How to Design a Beautiful and Productive Landscape

    The Food Forward Garden, by Christian Douglas: A Manual that Explains How to Design a Beautiful and Productive Landscape

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    Flipping through The Food Forward Garden, the first thing you notice isn’t the fruits and vegetables—and that’s intentional. Landscape designer Christian Douglas has been creating backyard kitchen gardens in Northern California for more than 12 years; in that time he has learned that clients are much more likely to tend and harvest from the garden, if it’s also a beautiful and inspiring place to spend time. So it is no surprise that each garden in his new book is as pretty as it is productive.

    From a small city backyard bordered with raised beds to chef Tyler Florence’s elaborate, terraced kitchen garden, Douglas shows us the wide range of what he calls “food forward” gardens—gardens in which the food is brought forward rather than being hidden away in a back vegetable patch. Douglas believes that vegetables, fruits, herbs, and berries should share the prime real estate in our yards with patios, pools, and even the front walk. “By learning how to integrate food into our outdoor spaces, we can make better use of our time and resources,” says Douglas. These gardens aren’t designed to feed a whole family, he adds: “We are looking for people to engage more and grow something.”

    The breathtaking landscapes in this book are also an invitation to readers. Douglas believes that people might be more swayed by images of beautiful, aspirational yards than a workaday, how-to guide. This is not to say that The Food Forward Garden is not packed with practical advice—it is, especially the second half of the book, which covers growing tips and specific plants—but in this book visual inspiration is always hand-in-hand with the science of growing food.

    Here are 7 ideas to steal from this new book that blurs the line between backyard farming and high-end landscape design:

    All photos excerpted from The Food Forward Garden by Christian Douglas (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2024. Photography by Sasha Gulish.

    1. Grow food in view.

    Douglas learned through experience that his clients were much more likely to harvest the food in their gardens if they could see it from their windows.
    Above: Douglas learned through experience that his clients were much more likely to harvest the food in their gardens if they could see it from their windows.

    The kitchen garden should be close to the kitchen. If it’s far away, it’s much less likely to be used. But perhaps even more important, Douglas says it should be right in sight of where you cook. “When it’s in view from the house, you can see when your strawberries are ready to harvest, you’ll know exactly when your broccoli heads are ready and not three days later when they start to go to flower,” he says. “People tend to eat more from the garden and learn faster when they’re seeing the garden several times a day.”

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  • Wild Lettuce: A Delicious Foraged Vegetable that Makes an Outstanding Summer Soup

    Wild Lettuce: A Delicious Foraged Vegetable that Makes an Outstanding Summer Soup

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    Do you know where the wild lettuce grows? Ask a bunny. In Beatrix Potter’s eponymous tale, the Flopsy Bunnies eat too many lettuces and fall asleep in an ill-advised spot, where Mr. MacGregor finds them. These were “overgrown lettuces, which had shot into flower” to be thrown on a rubbish heap; mature lettuces produce a lot of milky sap (hence their genus name Lactuca), and this sap has been used in folk medicines for millennia to calm and to soothe (dried, it is known as lettuce opium). And then there are Edward Lear’s Old Guinea Pigs, who caution: “Have a care that you eat your Lettuces, should you find any, not greedily but calmly.” The little guinea pigs did not follow their advice.

    These favorite childhood stories and an abundance of wild lettuce locally (in flower, as I write) are how my recipe for a chilled wild lettuce soup was born. The emerald soup is restorative, and can be made with tame lettuces, too, or other leafy greens.

    Photography by Marie Viljoen.

    Above: This smorgasboard of early summer weeds includes wild lettuce (rear), daylilies, and burdock.

    Lettuces may in fact be soporific; exploratory studies are beginning to (tentatively) substantiate traditional medicine’s deployment of lettuce powders and oils as a sleep aid and analgesic. In a culinary context, you’d have to eat as many as those greedy rabbits did to feel any effects. But the antioxidants and high fiber in lettuce, plus the drowsy-bunny appeal, are reason enough to eat more wild lettuce. It is an under-appreciated vegetable whose versatile nature should encourage culinary attention.

    Above: As ornamental as Swiss chard? The midribs of Lactuca canadensis in late spring.

    Wild lettuces as a group are not too hard to identify. Beginners might mistake them for dandelions, sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceus), or thistle species—not a serious error, since all are edible. It’s helpful to know that some lettuce species look very similar and are hard to tell apart until they bloom. This is also not serious, since there is no toxic species, but it will vex your inner plant geek.

    Where I live, the two most common lookalike wild lettuces are Lactuca canadensis  and L. biennis (also known as tall blue lettuce). The stalks of both may be either a deep maroon or green. The leaves of both are highly variable. Both are tall, their hollow stems stretching up to human height.

    Above: Lactuca biennis, tall blue lettuce.

    Above: A closer view of L. biennis, with faint hairs on the stem and leaves that do not clasp.

    L. biennis has very faintly hairy stems, while L. canadensis has fine hairs only on the leaves’ midribs. A useful distinction is that L. canadensis bleeds a slightly brown latex when cut. And a final “c” distinction is to remember that “canadensis clasps,” because its leaves clasp the stem.

    Above: Lactuca canadensis.

    Wild lettuces have potential to be sown and grown as bona fide vegetables. While we have bred the stems out of domesticated lettuce, consider celtuce, which is all stem (and challenging to cultivate). A tender wild lettuce stem is a true delicacy, and the plant is easier to grow. Harvest lettuce seeds this late summer and fall and offer them a spot in your vegetable plot. L. biennis will prefer some shade if you have it to spare.

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