From Seed to Salad

         Here at Farm to You NH we produce the salad mix, which mainly gets used at the UNH Dairy Bar in salads such as the Wildcat Harvest Salad (pictured below). The mix includes a variety of lettuces and a greens mix with mustards, baby kale and more. The mix is full with flavor and incredibly fresh!

           To start growing a salad mix we purchase a lettuce mix  and a greens mix from our local seed provider Johnny’s Seeds.  We then use a seeder to evenly spread lettuce mix in half the bed area we are dedicating to the salad mix. About 5 days later we then seed the greens mix in half the bed. Waiting is important because the greens are a bit quicker to germinate and mature to the harvest size than the lettuce mix.   
         By staggering the seeding both mixes are ready to harvest on the same day. We normally seed lettuce on Monday and greens on Friday every 3 weeks for a continual harvest. Three cuttings are harvested out of each bed and then typically buckwheat is seeded as a cover crop.

When harvesting greens mix enough plant should be left to regrow on its own. Ross is pictured instructing Peter on proper harvest height. Once harvested we weigh and then wash the mix in our sink. Following the wash is a spin in the salad spinner. This orange magical tool helps dry off the mix so it will stay fresh and clean. We then box it for shipping one mile to the Dairy Bar where they prepare great meals made with our own salad mix!
         The salads are incredibly flavorful and delicious and we hope you get to try one; they are available year-round as we grow in our heated tunnel all winter so you can get fresh green in February!