Chicken Scratch Poultry: Home grown lettuce

Friday, June 14, 2013

Home grown lettuce - Let's make a wilted salad

A garden favorite from the time I was a small child has always been fresh lettuce from the garden and my mother made the best salad ever! Maybe you all have had this before we always called it wilted lettuce salad. It's probably not the healthiest for you but it's delicious. It's never as good with store bought lettuce It needs to be fresh garden lettuce. My all time favorite lettuce to plant in the garden is Butter Crunch.

It's a good feeling going out to the garden and gathering the produce that just a few weeks ago were seeds in a packet. I begin by cutting the lettuce off at the ground. I usually plant a couple different kinds and cut a little of all.

The radishes have grown so fast this year with all the rain fall we've had. Don't they look great! chicken manure grows an amazing garden.

I pull a couple of green onions. Within just a few minutes I have the makings of a salad cut and gathered.

Probably the most time consuming part of this salad is washing each leaf.

After you've washed the lettuce, onions and radishes you need to let the water drain off good. I like to cut the lettuce up very tiny for this salad. What I do is take handfuls squeeze out the water and start shaving it off in thin slices. Then cut up the radish and green onion.

The next step is to fry up about 6 slices of bacon in a skillet. Once the bacon is fried, set it aside and let your bacon grease cool down. In a small dish combine 4 tablespoons of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of sugar. I like to use Balsamic vinegar. Stir that up until sugar is dissolved.

Now pour the vinegar mixture into the cooled bacon grease and begin to heat your bacon grease back up. Simmer the vinegar and bacon grease for just a couple seconds. While the mixture is still hot pour over the lettuce and toss. There you have it wilted lettuce salad, ooo it's good!