This is a lettuce that looks like an endive. It is called "Can Can".
This particular plant has an interesting history (for a lettuce, that is). It was sown on August 22nd LAST YEAR! In the Autumn it never grew very big, but it looked healthy enough, so I covered it with a cloche to protect it, and it survived the Winter, hardly changing size at all. Then in the Spring it suddenly decided to grow normally, and here we are with a mature lettuce this week.
This is a completely different style of Lettuce - "Little Gem".
Most people probably wouldn't recognize Little Gem with its outer leaves on, because it is normally sold as just the heart - like this:
I was particularly pleased with this one, because it was very dense and heavy. When I disassembled it, it seemed even bigger.
At the weekend I lifted another batch of potatoes. These are "Lady Christl", a First Early variety.
The big reveal...
Like the last batch, these are really smooth and clean, without the slightest sign of scab or anything. However, the size of the tubers is very variable - some of them are bigger than ideal for a new potato - and the overall yield is not so special (876g). I put this down to the dryness of the soil / compost mix, as I mentioned last week. I won't be buying the Wickes multi-purpose compost again.
Taste and texture-wise though, these potatoes were superb. I think new potatoes fresh out of the ground have a quality that cannot be matched by anything that has sat in a shop for weeks on end before being sold. In fact, I often think the potatoes sold as "new" are actually kept in cold storage for months before they are even put on sale!
I'm linking my post to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.
