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Tips on harvesting lettuce
Harvesting is the fun part, and of course you don’t want to miss out after all your hard work! Be sure to harvest lettuce before it bolts upward. Lettuce tends to bolt in hot weather, and bolted lettuce is quite bitter. With looseleaf lettuce, you can harvest the outer leaves first to encourage new growth. Head lettuce varieties are mature when they are firm, well wrapped, and tight. To harvest mature lettuce, pull the plant out of the garden, cut roots with scissors, and quickly dip plant in cold water to maintain fresh, crispy lettuce. In the hotter months of summer, plant lettuce between or under larger plants to give it shade. And don’t forget to plant lettuce in succession (every 2-3 weeks) to ensure a regular crop!
A note about the soil in new raised beds
The Food Project’s raised beds are filled with compost. Sometimes the soil in new raised beds (those built in spring) still needs more time to settle. When this happens, gardeners might notice that plants stay the same size and do not appear to grow bigger. Usually, plants will take off by mid-July and eventually catch up in size and yield. Also, if this happens, by the second season, plants flourish easily in the raised beds. So, the bottom line is enjoy your gardens, have patience, and your gardens will thrive!
Raised bed report
Happy to report ours is thriving as well. We had our second salad (lettuce) last night and I made a big batch of pesto with the basil. The sugar snap peas are getting super tall. Sadly a raccoon (I think) got all our beans, so we need to plant more.
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raised bed
One motivated woman builds her own raised beds in Cambridge, MA using The Food Project’s How to Build a Raised Bed Manual (PDF).
closeup of plants and string
The string helps gardeners figure out spacing of plants and follows the square foot method.
seedling
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This season, we have partnered with Oasis Development to start a new farm site in downtown Lynn. The new land is located on Munroe Street, which also houses The Food Project North Shore office.
The 1/4 acre lot is highly visible and is already starting to bring more excitement to downtown Lynn. We will be working on this project throughout the season and will be growing more food for our Lynn Central Square Farmers Market & Hunger Relief donations and we will be providing more community garden space for residents of the downtown Lynn area.
Additionally, we would like to highlight Brick Ends Farm for their compost donation & Eastern Tree Services for the woodchips! Pictured are volunteers from General Electric, preparing beds for planting.
We are excited about this new project and invite you to come visit us the next time you are in the North Shore!
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Chris Burns from Lincoln is the lucky winner of the 2009 Harley Davidson Road King Classic motorcycle. Thanks to all of you who bought tickets and supported three local farms: Codman Community Farms, The Farm School and The Food Project. An extremely big thank you goes to Chef Peter Davis of Henrietta’s Table who helped sell a bunch of tickets for us.
Alex Attia, general manager of The Charles Hotel, reading the winner's name.
