A salad a day is de rigueur around here now that summer has arrived, which means I have to daily face my nemesis: washing greens.
As far as kitchen tasks go, I’d rather shuck corn, peel potatoes, heck, even dice an onion over washing lettuce. I’m not entirely sure why I despise it so much, but the years of salad duty – garde manger – in professional kitchens certainly didn’t spark any affection for the job, and nor did growing my own greens fan any flames.
In one particular restaurant, I was yelled at if the lettuce was gritty. Understandably. But I was also yelled at for taking too long if I took the time required to wash the greens thoroughly (a minimum of three times, if you were wondering). I couldn’t win.
Now baby spinach and beautiful red oak leaf lettuce are growing in my garden. The rain pounds down around them, splashing droplets of soil onto the undersides of their leaves and I see a summer of lettuce washing stretching ahead of me.
Making vinaigrette for my daily salads, however, is a task I do enjoy.
along on another recent outing to the family sugar bush and give you one more glimpse of Eastern Canada’s ‘fifth season’.
