Salad and Braising Mix

 The salad and braising mixes are a sort of spring special here. We know that the baby green mixes are very popular and we grow them in spring because they can be ready to harvest in about four weeks, which means we can plant them after the major winter rains have let up and have them ready by the first CSA boxes. But salad and braising mixes are a lot of work to grow so during the rest of the season we tend to favor the head lettuces and mature greens that do so well here.

What makes the baby green mixes so difficult? First of all we plant the salad and braising mixes directly into the field from seed. (When we plant head lettuce or greens like kale and chard, we generally start them in the greenhouse so they have a head start on the weeds.) We plant four different types of lettuce or green seeds close together in 8 rows on a single bed. Because we are in a hurry to get harvestable crops planted at the beginning of the season, we often don’t have time for the usual measures we take to reduce weed pressure in our direct seeded crops, such as the “stale seedbed” technique, where we pre-irrigate the empty beds, wait until most of the weeds have germinated and then make a cultivating pass to take out the weeds before planting. So as soon as the little lettuce plants poke up their heads, so do a large number of weeds. Once everything is big enough to see well and get our fingers around, we have our crew go through and pluck out the weeds by hand–it takes several people several days to clean one bed. When harvest time comes, we cut the young leaves by hand with lettuce knives, again weeding each little patch before we cut. We harvest all eight rows at once so that the different types of lettuces/greens are mixed together. Once the mix is harvested it goes into our salad washing room, where we wash it in large tubs, transferring it from one tub to the next to remove all the dirt. Finally we put the mix into the stainless steel salad spinner that Steve had custom fabricated about 7 years ago. After the mix is spun dry we weigh out portions into individual bags and it’s ready for CSA packing morning! Compared to growing out, harvesting, and rinsing a head of lettuce or bunch of kale, the labor that goes into a bag of salad or braising mix is many times greater. But the reward is those luscious tender greens made even more tasty because we don’t grow them all year round.

This season’s salad mix consists of red lola rosa, red oak leaf, green leaf, and green romaine lettuces. The braising mix is baby mizuna, tatsoi, mustard greens, and red kale, a sweet and spicy combination that’s great for stir fry, braising, or just a quick wilt in the pan and a sprinkle of soy sauce.

Since the spring mixes are so easy to use, you’ll have time to take up the challenge of the celery root. But don’t worry it’s actually not difficult to use either and there’s lots of support below from Chef Andrew and other CSA members who answered Sarah’s Facebook query! Enjoy your box.