Winter Density

 I am sure you can relate to the problem where you mean to do something and think about it often, only to realize, some time later, that you never did do that thing - despite all of your thinking about it.

Well, that's the way things get sometimes at the farm when it comes to taking pictures of things.  A couple of years ago I was struck by the beauty of the heads of Winter Density lettuce we were growing in Valhalla (our larger high tunnel) and I told myself to get a picture of them.  But, then, it was time to harvest and I took almost all of the heads of that beautiful butterhead/romaine cross out for people to enjoy.

Then, I promptly forgot to take a picture until a week later.

Even though I failed to catch Winter Density at its peak with the photo above, you can get an idea as to the shape, color and texture.  They are just starting to "stretch" and get taller, which means they are bolting (going to seed).  You might also notice a little tip burn on the edges of the leaves because this batch was in the high tunnel and we had some very warm weather the week after we harvested.

Well, that's part of the reason we chose the lettuce to be harvested.  We knew the heat was coming.

Oddly enough, Winter Density is not one of the lettuces we have a long history with at the Genuine Faux Farm.  Instead, we have relied on a mix of lettuces including Bronze Arrowhead, Bunte Forellenschus and Grandpa Admires.  But, once we started getting interest in our lettuce in larger, bulk amounts, we found we needed to find a nice, bulky green lettuce that was not necessarily a romaine.  Winter Density, having both romaine and butterhead qualities fit the bill nicely.

Winter Density tends to put together some nice, dense, leaf lettuce heads that have quality leaves from top to bottom, inside and out.  We've harvested heads that have weighed as much as a pound, but felt ok with beginning to pick them once they reached about a quarter pound in weight.  These heads are one of the easier lettuce harvests for us because the base stem is easy to find at the soil surface and cut with the lettuce knife.  They cut easily and cleanly.

Many of our heritage lettuces that we grow are perfect for the CSA because they tend to mature inconsistently, effectively extending the harvest period.  Winter Density tends to compact their maturity period with a consistent growth period for most plants.  This is great if you need to have a batch of lettuce with some uniformity of size and maturity, but a problem if you don't have a place for all of them to go when they all reach that stage.

We find that Winter Density slots in nicely for the Spring to early Summer plantings and again for the late August transplants that we will harvest in early October and later plantings into November.  The leaves do tend to tip burn in extreme heat, so we often back off of growing Winter Density in the warmest months.  I suppose, given the name, we shouldn't be at all surprised by that!  But, I wonder if a little shade cloth could actually extend the season of this variety into that period as well.

As far as taste and texture are concerned, we can tell you this.  Rob likes the softer lettuces, like the Bunte Forellenschus and Tammy likes lettuce with some crunch, like Crispmint (a romaine).  We both like Winter Density.

I hope everyone has a good weekend!