Celtuce or Stem Lettuce

Celtuce is an oriental vegetable. It starts off as a bunch of upright leaves, which can be eaten in a salad, but are a bit bland. The plant grows quickly and easily, forming a statuesque shape in the border. Then all of sudden the stem starts to grow. At first sight one might think it is bolting, but do not worry it is just going into its next stage of growth - forming the edible stem that gives it one of its names. I added a feed of home-made nettle tea to help it in its swift growth..

If the leaves were unremarkable, the stem is delicious. I used it in a stir-fry. I removed the remaining lower leaves, which were showing signs of age, to reveal the creamy coloured stem now over an inch thick. I cut it off at the base and made my way to the kitchen. The stem needed peeling, but that was easily done with a potato peeler. It held its structure and slightly nutty flavour well in the stirfry. I can see me using it other non-oriental dishes.

The mistake I made aesthetically was to plant it in a row, which meant that it wasn't until I had removed some plants that I could see the celtuce shape. I am going to try dotting it around among other plants next year to create vertical features in the bed. The photo below gives a hint of what I intend.