How to Pick the Right Lettuce

Lettuce is near and dear to our hearts. We grow dozens of varieties at the farm, each for a unique eating characteristic. I think our attraction to it stems from the fact that most people think it’s so boring — but I promise you, good greens are anything but boring.

What makes a great lettuce? In our salads guide we talked about flavor, texture, loft, and color. But there are practical qualities too: How well does it store? How easy is it to fit in a crisper drawer? How quickly does it go bad once you cut it?

Romaine — Large mature leaves with a pronounced rib. Slightly ruffled texture that holds dressing well. Best known for Caesars or lettuce wraps.

Iceberg — Round, pale, juicy, dense, and crunchy. Their high moisture content makes them hard to dress, but the crunch of the leaf is fantastic. This is what’s in your wedge salad.

Butter lettuce / Bibb — Soft, delicate, and honestly often boring. These are popular hydroponic varieties, which means they lack some of the chemistry to develop full flavor.

Little Gem — Same as romaine but small and dense. Their size makes them a great space saver, and their density lends itself to high-heat roasting and grilling.

Baby leaf / mesclun — Probably the most popular “salad” green in America. Tender, refreshing, and often more mildly flavored than mature lettuces. Terrible shelf life.

Typically when people are making salads, they want a bite-sized piece of lettuce — not a huge hunk. You can accomplish that one of two ways: either take a big leaf and break it down into bite-sized pieces, or start with a lettuce that’s already bite-sized.

That’s where most baby leaf comes in. Baby leaf is grown until the leaves are a perfect salad size. The problem? It doesn’t last very long and tends to lack flavor.

Most people prefer the flavor of mature lettuces, so for the longest time they just cut large leaves like romaine or iceberg into smaller pieces. But the problem with pre-made chopped lettuce is that every cut is a wound — and those wounds are where lettuce starts to go bad.

That’s why breeders started creating varieties that, when fully mature, fall apart into small salad-sized leaves with a single cut. These are sometimes called Salanova or EZ-leaf lettuces, and they’re rapidly gaining popularity. We’re kind of obsessed with them at Blue Glass Farm — they have amazing flavor, they’re really easy to work with, and they last much longer than baby leaf.

The moral of the story: When you can, buy full heads of lettuce and break them down into salad leaves fresh when you need them. And if you want that to be even easier, try to get your hands on some Salanova or EZ-leaf varieties.

I want to throw in a plug for non-lettuce greens. Our actual favorite salad green is called Komatsuna — an amazing Asian green that has a light, supple leaf a lot like lettuce, with a fairly neutral but slightly more assertive flavor. I love mixing it into salads, sometimes as part of the base rather than the whole thing.

Other non-lettuce greens worth trying:

• Arugula — Peppery and assertive. Great mixed with milder greens or on its own with a simple lemon-oil dressing.
• Spinach — Mild and versatile. Baby spinach works raw; mature spinach is better cooked.
• Mizuna — Feathery leaves with a mild mustard flavor. Adds beautiful texture.
• Tatsoi — Spoon-shaped leaves, mild and slightly sweet. Holds up well to heavier dressings.

There are all kinds of things on greens that you may or may not want to eat. Broadly I break them down into organics, which you’re more likely to find on local greens, and synthetics, which you’re almost certain to find on commercial greens.

Organics like bugs, other plant material, or bits of dirt and compost — most of this is unlikely to hurt you, but it can have an unpleasant texture, and there are some reasonable food safety concerns, particularly for immunocompromised people.

Synthetics include pesticides (organic or otherwise), plastics, coatings, and disinfectants.

Local fresh greens are almost always sold “unwashed” as designated by local food safety authorities, including ours here at Blue Glass Farm. Legally we’re required to say “wash before eating.” At our house, if they look dirty we wash them; if they don’t, we don’t.

Commercial greens are a different story — we always wash them even though they’ve been “triple washed.” These processes remove dirt but can leave chemical residues, human waste from inadequate working conditions, and even leftover disinfectants and detergents. Yes, that means we’re washing off the things commercial growers “washed” them with.

Think about what could be on your greens and whether you feel the need to take the time to remove it. Ultimately this is a personal choice.

The key: wet greens don’t dress well. A salad spinner is worth it if you make a lot of salad. Otherwise, pat dry with towels.

Freshness matters more than storage technique. Conventional wisdom says greens last 5–7 days, baby greens only 2–3. But high-quality greens can last weeks — even a month.

This is why buying from a local grower makes such a difference. You can’t always tell freshness by looking, so ask.

Keep heads intact. If you can, wait to break down lettuce until you need it. It keeps much better as an intact head. We store our head greens in reusable mesh bags.

Moist but not wet. Greens have internal moisture. Put them in a crisper drawer with the vents closed or a plastic bag and they’ll largely self-regulate as long as they’re not dripping wet.

Give them room. Don’t pack greens too tightly — they need a little breathing room to stay crisp.