Monthly Archives: June 2014

Lettuce planted in September, photographed moments before harvest on June 14

The saga of my bumper crop of overwintered spinach garnered yawns from some people around here.  Yes, spinach plants are known for being able to survive a freeze, even of the polar variety, and come back in the spring, I was told. But lettuce? Has anyone heard of lettuce that survived a Northeastern winter — an unusually cold one, at that — and yielded a continuous harvest of leaves from April till halfway through June? Some of my fall lettuces did just that, under the same thin row cover and snow pack that blanketed my spinach crop. There were two survivors from a mix of leaf lettuces that I planted last September: a red oakleaf and curly red-leaf variety.  The stems kept extending themselves but the plants never did bolt before I finally pulled them up on June 14, so the leaves were sweet to the end.

polar vortexes didn’t faze my oakleaf lettuce

planted in September, harvested in June

I wish I remember the spinach variety I planted last September. It was the most successful spinach I’ve ever grown.  The one small packet of seeds yielded several nice bags full of baby leaves last fall.  As I’ve already noted, the plants survived the winter under a thin row cover topped with a thick blanket of snow. A continuous heavy harvest of fat, large leaves began in March. When the plants began to bolt in May, I topped them, prompting the plants to sent out multiple side shoots (as seen in the photo above), topped with lots more “baby” leaves as tender and sweet as the first pickings last fall.  I will try to keep some plants producing into July, just to see if that is possible. But I pulled most of them yesterday, to clear room for basil, eggplants and tomatoes. I’m going to try to repeat the spinach feat in the coming fall and winter.  Anyone have any idea what variety I may have planted last fall, or more generally, which varieties of spinach are best for keeping through the winter?