Salad Mix (Mesclun)

What can you expect to find in any salad mix? To begin with: dozens of lettuce varieties: from the more traditional iceberg, bib, Boston and butterhead, to the arugula, endive, escarole, rocket, romaine and radicchio. Depending on variety these will come in an array of greens and reds. Leaves will be frilly, rounded, pointed or oak-leaf shaped. In any salad mix you may also find baby spinach, bunches of tiny radishes, cherry tomatoes and perhaps something more unusual like dandelion, chicory or fennel.

The difference between large scale (even if organic), and small scale salad mix is the taste. Vegetables which are grown under huge sterile plastic cloches might look perfect but there will definitely be something missing in the flavor department. Vegetables which are lovingly tended and have actual contact with sun and real soil will taste like they are meant to taste.