Don't Give Head

Missing Lettuce

Earlier this summer I finally got my copy of Nose to Tail Eating, whereas Fergus Henderson lays down his culinary principles. Now, while I'm at least curious about rolled spleen and salted pig liver, I doubt I'll ever get an audience, and the recipe for brawn (headcheese) is at least fun to read. One dish, however, that I wanted to make almost immediately was the Little Gem with anchovies and tomatoes--as soon as ripe tomatoes arrived in the market. There was only one problem, I could never find the Little Gem lettuce.

I slightly chalked that up to the idea that my local farmers did not plant Little Gem. Wrong. In fact searching for some Romaine the other day, I got the truth. The farmers are growing Little Gem (and Romaine), just not selling the heads. It seems that head lettuce is too tricky, too much work, to unproductive. So, the farmers pick the lettuce leaves as they grow. They do not wait for a full head to form. If they do, there is a chance, so I was told, there will be too much waste.

I appreciate the economy, but there's many times I'd like a little head [ed. gosh no]. For instance, I was thinking that long Romaine leaves would really work well with the Zuni roast chicken/bread salad that we are having for Rosh Hashanah. I could not find that. And I learned that a lot of lettuce mixes contained Little Gem, but I was not gonna make Fergus's dish by picking out the particular leaves. Let's not forget a good wedge salad. Localvores should not have to skip such decadence. We need to bring back the head.