Salad Days

Here's the salad of the week...

Awww yes. My eyes. They glazeth over when I see that.

During the summer I have a huge thing for nectarines. So I will cut up a whole nectarine over a salad right now and just be fine and dandy with that. Of course I like a little something else on it, like some strawberries and a few nuts. Splash on a little balsamic vinegarette and I'm good to go.

There's a little slaw on the side there also. That's called Open-up-the-fridge-and-use-that-before-it-goes-bad tactics. Yes it is.

Since I eat a ton of salad, I like very good high quality salad greens.  My favorite brand of salad is Organic Girl.

They sell that up at the Whole Foods. That's why I be up in there so much. It's the cheapest place to buy it. $1.50 cheaper than the local grocery store. The size above is one pound. That will last me a week and a half. A pound for $5.98, baby! Whoo-hoo!

And they have the widest variety I have seen. I think I've counted up to 20 different lettuce or greens in their some 10 brands of salad mix. This is good, as I get to learn about different types of greens and I don't get bored with my salads. 

So...

A few weeks ago, I was perusing the local Whole Foods produce section, and there was a young lady standing at a booth with a huge bowl of lettuce just standing alone.

*LadyLee's antennae goes sky high*

"Well hello there," I said. "Looks like you have some lettuce here."

"Yes, I do," she says. "This is good lettuce, and we're giving out free samples today. It's from a local farm. Would you like some?"

Well shut my mouth wide open. You ain't gotta ask me nothing twice.

"Yes, I'd like some of that lettuce."

And it was a local lettuce.



And it was indeed from a local farm down in Forest park, which is a short 20 minute drive, down on the South side. It looks like the brand name is "Encore Mix". They need to be more forthright with that.

She gave me a bowl of lettuce.

I wanted to say, "Uh, could you please cut that up? And could you give me a little more?"

But I didn't.

Free lettuce is GOOD lettuce.I would just have to work with it.

She sprinkled on some balsamic vinergarette.  I bought some of the lettuce. I don't normally care for straight green lettuce, but they had a brand with some purple lettuce mixed in.  And I checked out, got in the car, and ate my lettuce on the way home.

It was very good. VERY FRESH. She said it had just been picked that morning, and uh... I could tell.

But it is too delicate for my tastes. (And it says "delicate" on the cover. Hmm). I like a lettuce mix that is more hearty.

But this type of lettuce would be perfect on a sandwich. It had just the right amount of flavor and crunch.

And I had to go look back for the balsamic vinegarette that she used because it was the best I ever had. It's a boutique brand, but it takes me roughly a month to go through a bottle of dressing, so I will splurge from time to time on it.

I was just happy to get some free lettuce, honey.

Nothing like it... except maybe for some free nectarines. LOL.