Strange lettuce and special scapes

Red deer tongue lettuce

Following tonight's pick-up, we are officially into Month #2 of the Bluff Box! Thanks to all our "regulars" for your continued support of an especially hard-working local farmer and a warm welcome to all the new folks joining us!

If you're wondering about that reddish lettuce in this week's box, Katharina tipped us off that it might be "deer tongue" and she's right; it's an heirloom varietal. According to the Slow Food Ark of Taste write-up, this type of lettuce dates back to the 1740s! Not something you are likely to find at the grocery store, that's for sure.

Scapes growing on hard-neck garlic

And speaking of things you won't find at the supermarket (except maybe the Market on Yates, which was selling some today from Saanich), scapes are truly a special seasonal treat. Only the traditional hard-neck garlic varieties produce them but most of the modern-day garlic sold in stores is soft-neck garlic (chosen for mass production because it's easier to grow and plant mechanically, and it keeps for longer than hard-neck garlic).

Scapes are cut off so that the garlic plant puts its energy into forming a nice large bulb rather than trying to produce a large healthy flower. They are also delicious to eat, which is why we've put them in the Bluff Box two weeks in a row. Check out the Recipes page for some ideas of how to use them, or if you tried Holland's pesto today, you may want to jump straight to Recipe of the Week #5 - Simple Scape Pesto.