Salad leaves

Seasonal bounty Fresh salad leaves and the promise of tender young carrots and beans to come, then sweet corn ripened by the summer sun expectation is part of the pleasure of vegetable-growing. 

From far left) Crops through the year Fava beans, here in flower, are one of the first major orops of the year. Summer is a time for salad leaves and tender young vegetables, while pumpkins and squash soak up the sun to ripen in fall. Hardy Brussels sprouts are a reliable winter stalwart. 

By sowing fast-maturing vegetables like lettuce and radishes little and often, at 2-3 week intervals, you can avoid gluts and have a continuous supply over many months. Other suitable crops include corn salad, arugula, and other salad leaves calabrese, kohlrabi, spinach, string beans, green onions, and turnips. 

One of two family members who ate uncooked "pork salad" leaves developed Mobitz type 1 heart block associated with vomiting and watery diarrhea (Hamilton et al., 1995). A complete blood count (CBC) revealed a white blood cell (WBC) count of 14,600/mm3 with 80% polymorphonulear leukocytes (PMNS), 10% lymphocytes, and 10% monocytes. Hematocrit and platelets were normal. Promethazine in a dose of 25 mg IV was given to facilitate administration of charcoal. Within 15 min of promethazine administration vomiting stopped, and 1 h later, the Mobitz type I block had disappeared, and a first degree AV block remained. The patient was discharged 36 h later EKG and WBC had normalized. 

You can even grow a crop of salad leaves in the winter by starting tbem off indoors in modules and hardening tbem off before planting out into tbe window box. In frosty weather, the crop will need to be protected witb a cloche or cold frame. Good choices to try are winter purslane, mizuna, salad rocket, and corn salad. 

If you have a good yield of tomatoes and grow your own salad leaves, try this recipe to bring out the best in your home-grown ingredients. 

VA lb (350 g) vine-ripened tomatoes 4 handfuls mixed salad leaves (rocket, mizuna, frisee, chicory, cress)... 

Blend the vinegar, olive oil, basil, and seasoning together to make a thick dressing. Pour half over the tomatoes and carefully mix. Pour the other half over the salad leaves and gently mix. 

Divide the salad leaves between four plates, top with a serving each of the tomatoes, crumble some of the cheese over each portion, and serve. 

Preparation Emulsify the essential oil intermixtures with the olive oil add the lemon juice and season with salt. Place the dressing in a large bowl, marinade the cheese, and add the salad leaves, bell peppers, and scallion. Mix well and garnish with the herbs and blossoms and the roasted sesame. 

A number of vegetables from the family Asteraceae have a bitter taste, such as endive Cichorium endivia), the aerial part (leaf rosette) of which is eaten as a salad. Lettuce Lactuca sativa) sometimes has a bitter taste, particularly the stalk and the white milky juice. Chicory (C. intybus var. foliosum) is slightly bitter, and is cultivated for salad leaves called chicons (etiolated buds) growing from the root vertex in the dark. Roasted chicory root (C. i. var. sativum) is used in the manufacture of coffee surrogates. Bitter substances of these vegetables are primarily sesquiterpenic... 

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