Lettuce-Forellenschluss

“It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is 'soporific'” Beatrix Potter

Last night for dinner we had some delicious salmon with my wife's fantastic coating of Soy Sauce, mustard and brown sugar. On the side we had some rice and beans as well as a few strawberries from our old patch and a some greens from the garden that included Swiss chard, spinach and lettuce, among other items.

This year I ordered two varieties of lettuce from my favorite organization The Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa. The lettuce we tried out for the first time last night was a romaine variety called Forellenschluss. As I was cleaning it I made a remark to my wife that it was a beautiful plant and I thought that its maroon and green speckled leaves would make it an interesting visual piece to a trout dinner. Upon looking into this particular variety a little further I found out that it is also known as "Speckled Trout Back" and is an Austrian heirloom variety. Seed Savers advertises it by stating that it is," Our all time favorite!". This says an awful lot if one is aware of the countless varieties of lettuce available through Seed Savers Exchange. I am sold, I have to admit this was the best lettuce I have ever had the pleasure of sinking my teeth into. The leaves were light and crunchy and the flavor was almost too good to be true.

This also happens to be one of the varieties I am going to attempt to save seed from so wish me luck. If you happen to be interested in a unique lettuce for your garden next year I cannot recommend this variety enough!