Lettuce Everywhere (and not a drop of dressing)

We recently made a trip to Monterey California to learn more about our fresh greens, artichokes, garlic, celery and other vegetables from the Salinas Valley region and it was quite enlightening!  This is the best place in the world to grow lettuces and many other crops thanks to the cool temperatures and daily overcast skies (locals hate it, but lettuces love it!).

The vastness of the lettuce fields was absolutely stunning - they stretched on for miles and miles in every direction.  They lettuce is rotated with strawberries, broccoli, cabbages, celery and other cool weather crops.

Romaine Lettuce.  Water is precious in this dry valley, so the soil is prepared with plastic underground watering tubes to avoid waste and excess moisture on the leaves.  Seeds are planted and seedlings culled by hoe for perfect spacing.

Only the best heads are taken, any sign of bird damage or insects and the heads are left behind and tilled back into the soil.  The crew is nearing the end of the row where more wind damage can occur, so they're switching from the premium brand in the white boxes (which we buy) to a lesser brand in the brown.  Our coop / supplier manages quality at field level and leverages the finest produce of the region.

They're fanatical about sanitation here!  We had to wash our hands and wear hair and beard nets to enter the fields.  Portable toilets are kept close at hand and inspectors watch everyone wash their hands before returning to work.  Also, produce samples are taken from every section of the field and tested for pathogens - if any are present, the lettuce does not get picked.  Their safety measures were very comforting!

Our produce buyer Mike Boardman looked particularly good in the hair and beard net - I noticed he took a couple boxes of each home, probably to wear around the house.

Some new lettuce varieties we're hoping to bring in soon from Organic Girl.
Their flavors and blends are stunning!

Baby romaine hearts from Organic Girl.  The leaves are perfect for fancy filled displays, the halves are the perfect size for stuffing and serving one, and the tops can be cut off for cute little cups

A new lettuce blend we hope to offer soon.  The biggest thing we learned was how impeccably clean and safe the packaged lettuces are - so we plan to stop packaging our own lettuce and move to prepackaged.  I was so impressed, I'll never wash a packaged lettuce again, I could only get it dirtier!

The celery operations were amazing - these guys cut and trim each bunch with exacting precision in seconds, and the air was filled with the sweet smell of celery.  Almost every day the sun comes out for a couple hours and a cool breeze moves in (we wore jackets the whole time we were there - in late August!) before the clouds return.  Heaven for cool weather crops!

This area is also the heart of most artichoke and garlic growing in California - Castroville is famous for it's artichokes and Gilroy is known as the garlic capital of the world.

If you visit the area, you'll definitely want to stay in The Clement at Monterey Bay, right in the heart of 'Cannery Row' (also a famous novel by John Steinbeck) - it's right on the bay, next to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and absolutely top notch accommodations! 

About the author: Chef Mick (Michaelangelo) Rosacci is the Corporate Chef and co-owner of Tony’s Markets in the Denver Metro area. Mick also teaches cooking on Denver’s Channel 7 News and Dig In, a local gardening show on FOX. For more recipes, visit www.TonysMarket.com and/or subscribe to Tony’s Culinary Club by clicking here.