Red Salad Bowl Lettuce - From Seed to Harvest

Indoors All Year Long with the Kratky Method

This marks our third season cultivating Red Salad Bowl lettuce using seeds harvested from our previous crops – a true testament to the resilience of heritage seeds! What makes our harvests even more consistent is our indoor, year-round growing system utilizing the Kratky method. This soilless technique allows us to nurture our lettuce without the need for traditional watering, providing a stable environment for growth regardless of the season outside.

As our Red Salad Bowl lettuce matures under our indoor setup, it naturally progresses to the flowering stage, producing seed pods. To ensure a plentiful seed supply for continuous planting, we allow ample flowering before carefully clipping the seed-bearing stems.

Instead of discarding the leaves that develop a slightly bitter taste as the plant begins to flower, we've discovered a resourceful way to utilize the entire plant. Once we've finished collecting seeds, we dehydrate the remaining leaves. These dehydrated leaves, packed with nutrients, become a valuable addition to our homemade spice mixes, enhancing both their flavor and nutritional profile.

Our seed-saving process involves carefully opening the dried seed pods and removing any attached chaff and debris, ensuring we have clean seeds for the next planting in our Kratky containers. When it's time to sow, we'll place just a couple of seeds in each container, allowing them to thrive in the nutrient-rich water solution.

Did you know? Red Salad Bowl lettuce isn't just beautiful; it's also good for you! Like other red-leafed vegetables, it's rich in antioxidants, which help protect your body against cell damage. It's also a good source of vitamins A and K, contributing to healthy vision, immune function, and blood clotting. Growing Red Salad Bowl lettuce indoors using the Kratky method allows us to enjoy these health benefits year-round!

Stay tuned for the next installment of our "As We Grow" series, where we'll continue to share the journey of our Red Salad Bowl lettuce in our indoor Kratky garden!