Lettuce, Alien Folk and French Fries In Lyme

By Chip Dahlke

I heard on the radio the other day that 50 percent of Americans have eaten only iceberg lettuce.

I’m sure this doesn’t mean that half the population of these United States has a diet consisting solely of iceberg lettuce. That would be just plain weird.

I’m pretty certain that it means that a lot of folks have never tried a different kind of lettuce. One possible explanation for this is that McDonald’s only uses iceberg lettuce in a Big Mac. If a Big Mac is a mainstay of your diet it stands to reason that you might not know any other lettuce.

As a group, lettuce was first cultivated by the ancient Egyptians as a “weed”. Back then a toke of good “Egyptian Green” was enjoyed by both the Royal Court and the worker bees alike.

In terms of calories, all lettuce is low on the scale with a count of 5-10 calories based on a one cup serving. I’ve actually never used a cup to measure out a serving of lettuce. It seems like a waste of time to measure out say three cups of lettuce to toss into a bowl when you can save time by just throwing enough lettuce into the bowl until it looks like enough. If you make a lot of salads in a week, it probably wouldn’t take long to save enough time to let you go on the internet and buy yourself a pair of Toms.

Once we move away from caloric content, iceberg lettuce starts to fall behind the pack. Romaine lettuce has eight times more vitamin A and six times more vitamin C than iceberg. Arugula has three times more calcium and Vitamin A than iceberg.

Some people say that the darker the green leaves in lettuce, the better it is for you. This is called a “rule of thumb”. Just so you know, the term “rule of thumb” is thought to originate with woodworkers who used their thumbs instead of rulers to measure things. Either that or the thumb was used as a measure for seed depth. It’s good to know these things.

The reason iceberg lettuce has fewer nutrients is because its leaves grow in a tighter head exposing its inner leaves to less sunlight. Darker green lettuce has looser leaves, more exposure to sunlight, and therefore more nutrients. Plants respond to external stimuli and sunlight is part of it. Using energy from the sun, plants change carbon dioxide and water into starch and sugars that become food for the plant. The better the food, the more the nutrients. Pretty cool, huh? I feel like Mr. Science.

Since the average American eats about 33 pounds of lettuce per year, I thought it was important that we had this discussion. The more we know about the food we eat, the better we can appreciate the food.

The only exception to this rule of thumb is lobster. The less we know about lobster the better.

Fryborg French Fries Food Truck  

Alien Folk Music

Guest Vendors (Full house this week!)

Dorothy Cohen is here is make you naturally beautiful.

Lox&Loaded will spread their cream cheese around.

Melissa Punzalan displays her jewelry. You’ll be happy to know that she has no bench warrants outstanding.

Laurie-Annya Linfoot has all her recycled art for your perusal. Great way to get useful stuff without dumpster diving.

Slammin’ Jammmin’ Shannon Carnese has her jams for sale.

Cindy Fencher will hopefully show up with Hidden Art Gallery.

Lucy Brainard is raising some money for African women with her beaded figurines.

Next Step Living is here to get you gently off the grid.

Mark Comstock has his nursery stock for sale.

Our old friend David Brown is hanging some of his art in the barn. This is the first time we've seen David all summer. I miss him.

New Fruit and Vegetable Vendors

We have two new farms added to our seasonal vendors. Bitta-Blue Farm is coming from Killingworth and New Mercies Farm joins us from Lyme. Stop by their tents to see what they have to offer.