Winter salads

[Odsox]

I was watching TV last week and an advert came on for mayonnaise which showed left over turkey tossed in mayo and eaten with a salad.
Which took me back to 1972 when our second child was born in February and when OH and daughter came home next day I asked my OH what she fancied for dinner and she said "salad".
I went to 3 local greengrocers and apart from some greenish orange tomatoes there was nothing available. A local farmer grew lettuces and he sold me 3 barely more than seedling lettuces and that was it.
No cucumber, no spring onions, no radishes, no celery, no new potatoes, there was probably beetroot available but I didn't like it then.

It was a totally different world then with everything in it's season, the only exception that I can remember is we got new potatoes from Egypt early in the year followed by Canary Island potatoes, both of which cost an arm and a leg and were totally tasteless.

Definitely no salads in February.

Another thing, when OH had the first, she gave birth in the local hospital and was then shipped off to a pre-arranged nursing home for two weeks (second one she came home next day). Any idea when they stopped doing that ?

[okra]

It's only when you look back you realise how quickly supermarkets have changed our eating habits

[Graye]

The problem with buying supermarket salad in winter is that it rarely tastes of anything.

I bought one of those living salad boxes months ago. I still have it on my window sill, water it regularly and I'm still cutting leaves more or less every few days. And it tastes goos too.

As for the nursing home thing it used to be believed that mothers needed to "lie in" after giving birth. Someone slightly more knowlegeable on medical things than me might be able to explain exactly why but I think it's completely out dated those days - lying in bed is basically bad for your health. I was in for a week when I had my son, nearly going crazy to be let out but made to stay because of a retained and then fragmented afterbirth (I haemorrhaged as soon as I did get out so they were right) but, 11 months later when I had my daughter I was there for a total of eight hours.

[Green Aura]

I'm sure we used to have the occasional winter salad, but as my Dad either grew, or my mother bought our veg off the market it would have been limited and seasonal.

I tend to sprout seeds and peas for winter salads rather than buy tasteless stuff - although I must admit to buying the occasional punnet of tomatoes - even bland I still love a tomato buttie

As for nursing homes I for one am glad they reduced the "confinement" period (that genuinely is what they called it ). When I had my gal I was desperate to go home - I had no problems with the birth but because she was born on a Thursday they wouldn't let me out until after the weekend because there wasn't a senior enough doctor on duty! The food was dreadful, OH was smuggling me stuff in and even the ward sister kept slipping me pints of milk because I wasn't eating enough to be able to feed my daughter (they said). I had no problem when I got home.

[grahamhobbs]

Odsox, back then who eat salads, summer or winter, they were horrible things. As for supermarket salads they are all glitz and no substance. For the first time in years the OH bought some (bad snow day, not worth risking going to the allotment), completely tasteless despite including rocket and lambs lettuce, hopefully being 'organic' it wasn't dowsed in chemicals.

In our polytunnels, we've grown a wide selection of lettuces, including many supposedly summer varieties and despite the freezing temperatures inside our draughty polytunnels, all except the cos 'Chartwell' have been unaffected. Outside the various endives were slaughtered by the weather, but despite the outside leaves going to mush the hearts of the radicchio are fine, the lambs lettuce of course will survive anything.

[Odsox]

Odsox, back then who eat salads, summer or winter,

My Missus, that's who.
And she still does, but it's not so much of a problem now.
I too have lettuce growing nicely as well as celery, celeriac, beetroot, radishes, finger carrots, spring onions, peppers and of course still picking tomatoes.
Also of note, I grew Pak Choi this year for the first time (was given some) and there was one weedy one left in the polytunnel, which now is growing very healthily and totally ignored the frost.

[Millymollymandy]

I eat salad all year round and we found salad stuff to buy in the 1970s because on Mondays we always had the left over cold meat from the Sunday joint with salad. Mind you we could only get floppy lettuce (one variety) back then, winter or summer.

I buy iceberg now in winter because lettuce varieties in French supermarkets are always floppy and limp and I like crunch. The flavour comes from the dressing - I would never eat lettuce without dressing on it - urk!

[Keaniebean]

We had no chance of home grown salad this year, even though I would have loved some. The kale and the sprouting Broccoli I planted have all gone bad in the snow and cold, so I don't think any salad would have survived.
The nearest I have come to any for of salad this winter is some tomatoes we got in our Abel and Cole box and they were tasteless with really thick chewy skins . I certainly wouldn't touch the supermarket stuff any more. Roll on the spring!

[Odsox]

I eat salad all year round

WOW, and this is from the very same person who slagged me off a few weeks ago for growing veggies out of season.

[gregorach]

My greenhouse winter lettuces were doing really well until something ate them. I should still have mizuna, green-in-snow, giant purple mustard and red cabbage, assuming nothing's got to them...

[contadina]

We grow and eat lettuce throughout the winter. If you don't have a polytunnel to grow tomatoes and cucumbers in then make a salad with stuff which does grow throughout the winter - fennel, radish, jerusalem artichokes, chicory etc.

[okra]

We grow and eat lettuce throughout the winter. If you don't have a polytunnel to grow tomatoes and cucumbers in then make a salad with stuff which does grow throughout the winter - fennel, radish, jerusalem artichokes, chicory etc.

Use can aslo add shreaded perpetual spinach which survives even the coldest spells

[Millymollymandy]

I eat salad all year round

WOW, and this is from the very same person who slagged me off a few weeks ago for growing veggies out of season.

WHAT? You bit my head off for merely mentioning buying out of season vegetables. Unlike you I can't grow tomatoes all year round and I have no problems with buying tomatoes/cuc/lettuce etc when I don't have them in the garden, which is most of the year. If I didn't buy veg and fruit for 9 months of the year we would have a very unhealthy diet. It was you who threw a wobbly about not buying veg in winter, I and 99% of the people on this board have no choice and frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.