lettuce

Parris Island lettuce is a type of romaine green lettuce that forms upright heads surrounded by wavy attractive looking dark green edible leaves. The heart of the lettuce is creamy to white. Parris Island lettuce is also known as Parris Island Cos lettuce or Parris Island romaine lettuce. It is considered the most nutritious green lettuce and is used mostly raw in a variety of culinary applications such as salads, sandwiches, wraps and tacos. Paris Island Cos is fairly easy to grow and can be raised through direct seeding or as transplants.

Buttercrunch lettuce is a Bibb lettuce variety of the butterhead lettuce group. Buttercrunch is an easy to grow flavorful loose head lettuce with a buttery velvety texture. It is used in recipe applications such as salads, sandwiches, wraps and green juices. This lettuce is also popular with home growers because of its attractive looks, which also serve for ornamental purposes in pots and gardens. It is suitable for container growing and does not easily bolt compared to other loose head lettuce varieties.

Boston lettuce is a loose head lettuce under the butterhead lettuce category. Boston lettuce is also often referred to as butter lettuce or Bibb lettuce which is an ongoing misnomer because Bibb lettuce is a distinct butterhead lettuce cultivar. Boston lettuce has tender, succulent and very delicate leaves. For this reason, it is usually kept or sold with its root intact and immersed in water to keep the leaves alive and fresh. The lettuce is very attractive and used in a wide variety of recipe preparations such as salads, sandwiches and juices.

Frisee lettuce (also frisée) is an endive vegetable variety with curly, loose frizzly looking leaves. It has a creamy yellowish center that is surrounded by green bitter outer leaves. The inner yellowish heart of the vegetable is often used in salads and other recipe preparations. Although referred to as a lettuce, botanically speaking, frisee lettuce does not share in the same genus nor family as Lactuca sativa, the regular lettuce that many are accustomed to. Frisee is sometimes interchangeably referred to as curly endive, curly leaf endive or curly chicory.

Purple lettuce is a dietary leafy vegetable that has light purple to deep purple looking leaves. Purple lettuce is sometimes interchangeably referred to as red lettuce. The purple to red pigmentation in the leaves is due to a naturally occurring water-soluble bio-compound which itself confers some superior health benefits in humans. There are many purple lettuce varieties, a good number of these are hybrid cultivars. Purple loose leaf lettuce is primarily used raw in a variety of culinary recipe applications which include salads, sandwiches, burgers, stir-fries and juices.