Howdy Friends and Fans! It's Summertime! If you are the personal chef parental unit of a kiddo, they are out of school now, and their snack stomach may have already grown to summertime size versus school snack stomach size. You may be tired of making food. I feel you. If you're cooking only for one or two, do you really want to heat up the kitchen and make something heavy? I don't want to either. The heat and humidity may have you thinking that a light snack or meal will sit better than the alternative. May I suggest a nice salad made with our very own Loudoun Lettuce Blend? It has a major following, and we love that you love it! Ever wonder how it came to be?
For those new to Endless Summer Harvest, Loudoun Lettuce is our private label, signature lettuce blend. It has five (or more) of our sweet and healthy, fresh varieties of lettuce that are blended with only the most perfect, whole leaves. Loudoun Lettuce is also the base of our European Blend, to which we add super nutritious red-vein sorrel, watercress, and arugula. Loudoun Lettuce is a crowd favorite and our flagship product. Please take a quick journey back into the past, and I will tell you the story of Loudoun Lettuce.
Loudoun Lettuce was the brainchild of owner and proprietress of Endless Summer Harvest, The Head of Lettuce, Mary Ellen Taylor. What every start-up hydroponic little lettuce farm would logically sell is salads and salad blends. Mary Ellen chose to create a blend that (as stated above) has five or more varieties of lettuce. That became our standard, 21 years ago. So when she was looking for a name for her beautiful salad blend, location seemed a perfect place to start. (Mary Ellen has a thing for location and alliteration.) "Let's honor our home, Loudoun County". Now that she had a beginning, the ending seemed rather obvious, thus we have Loudoun Lettuce. That's it! Quick journey over! (Possibly the shortest story I have ever told, HA!)
Lettuce Chat about the secret of how the preparation team makes each pile of Loudoun Lettuce. It's very technical. We grab a head of lettuce, and add only the best leaves to the pile. Then we grab a different head of lettuce, and the story goes on. We try our very best to make sure there are no bad leaves. (So. Very. Technical.) But not only is it very technical, it's magical...
Each Loudoun Lettuce blend is unique. It is always small-batch, hand made, bagged, and sealed with love. Each week we start anew, making that week or weekend market's bags. You may have read that I can usually tell you exactly when your bag was made. I can do that because I (and my amazing team) made it!
The lettuce going into your Loudoun Lettuce Blend varies from harvest to harvest, season to season, and day to day. We grow several varieties at one time, and choose to change them up at times because of the performance of each lettuce at that time. We choose to grow and use each head based on its flavor, texture, and color.
Friends and Fans, Loudoun Lettuce makes a great salad! The kiddos can munch on lettuce leaves, rather than chips. You can leave the leaves whole, or chop them up as small as you like. You can add fixings to it, like fruits, veggies, microgreens, or proteins, or simply leave it plain. Are you a dressing fan, or do you go for a simple oil and lemon topper? The possibilities are Endless this Summer! Lettuce Harvest it for you, and bring the Endless Summer to your table today. Easy, delicious, nutritious.
Happy Summering! Lettuce Chat about your favorite summer recipes by leaving a comment. Stay cool Friends and Fans!