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Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to record your daughter singing, “I like apples and bananas,” that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:
Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.Please note: I’ll do my best to update this post by hand. In the meantime, please click on the Mister Linky logo to view the complete list.
Food on Fridays Participants
Food on Fridays with AnnAt the farmer’s market last Saturday, I bought “living lettuce.”
Until that moment, I never gave much thought to the fact that cut lettuce or any vegetable that’s picked is dying. But I guess once it’s cut off from its source of nutrients, it’s the beginning of the end, which is why we should try to eat fresh-picked fruits and vegetables to enjoy peak flavor and nutrition.You can’t get much more fresh-picked than plucking a leaf from a head of living lettuce and immediately eating it.How does it work?The fellow selling this lettuce grows it hydroponically, allowing him to sell it long after conventionally grown lettuce is out of season. The roots are still attached and he says this lettuce is living until the moment I use it.
In fact, he says if the roots stay moist, this head of lettuce will stay perfectly fresh—and alive—for four weeks. 
And one source online claimed there’s no use for pesticides or herbicides on lettuce grown hydroponically. 
Intrigued? This video explained how to select, store, clean and use living lettuce (her example is butter lettuce—pictured above is green leaf).Here’s how one guy grew it on a really small scale.Here’s a more involved set-up a guy created:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhAferKRXh4]Here’s how to grow it on a really, really large scale:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHBhyqowSEc]
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I am linking about making broth/stock from chicken feet. Dare you to try it!
Hydroponic food is totally interesting, they don’t have anything like that in my area. Did it taste any different?
Thanks for hosting!
I was just saying to my friend how amazingly fresh the butter lettuce I bought almost two weeks ago is still doing in my fridge. It is incredible. If only all of our produce could be alive.
This week I made Ricotta Gnocchi with a Thyme Brown Butter sauce.
Happy eating!
I never thought of lettuce being a living thing before. I mean, I know it’s a plant and all, but when I read your post, I’m thinking about all the poor, dying fruits and veggies in my fridge! Eek! LOL!
Really, I love the idea of having lettuce last longer! Seems to not last very long lately!
Hydroponic “Living lettuce” is a great way to enjoy really fresh salads even if you don’t have a garden of your own, and fresher always tastes better! You can also grow lettuce from seed in a pot on your windowsill – it’s amazing how much you will get even from a fairly small pot. It might not be enough for a big salad but it’s perfect for making sandwiches etc, you can just pick what you need. Most lettuces will grow indoors all year round in most climates. Thanks for hosting Food on Fridays and have a great 4th of July weekend!
Very cool post! I have my undergraduate degree in horticulture and during that time we visited a lot of agriculture production facilities as well. My favorite out of all of them will always be when we visited a hydroponic farm that specialized in tomatoes. Even though its been around for a while, I still think there is great potential for it to be the ‘farming of the future’ 🙂
~Aubree Cherie
I still have a granite ware cooking pot in which my Grandma stewed chicken feet for the broth! She was very economical, but I think even my folks thought she was going too far!
How interesting. I never thought about “live” or “dead” lettuce before, but it sure makes a lot of sense. I need to find a farmer’s market. Too bad AZ isn’t known to produce much more than cactus and roadrunners!!
Wow, how interesting! I’m going to be on the search for “living lettuce” next time I go to the farmer’s market. We love salads.
Whew — busy day, and now my Food on Friday post is SO late. But it’s up, at least. And I love this info about the lettuce. I am definitely going to try it. Hope you have a weekend full of good salads!
That is so cool! I’m going to look for living lettuce at my store. And maybe eventually try to grow it! Thanks!
Hope it’s okay if I put in a link to a recipe I posted in my new Tasty Tuesday recipes. If not, just let me know, Ann. Thanks.
Janis
I linked to my taboulé recipe. Hope it isn’t too hard to understand the French!
Fascinating videos!! I smell a homeschool science project- thanks for sharing.