A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

This weekend I had the opportunity to head out to Devens, MA to check out Little Leaf Farms. So what is a girl who doesn’t like eating vegetables doing at a lettuce farm? Right?!! Well it turns out that I was just waiting for the right vegetables. Little Leaf Farms may have just converted me into being a salad eater! You can taste the difference – but more on that later. Let me start from the beginning: you’ve heard of Backyard Farms tomatoes – the year round greenhouse grown tomatoes. If you haven’t, check out my post here. Backyard Farms founder Paul Sellew and former EVP of Sales and Marketing Tim Cunniff have started a new venture, Little Leaf Farms.

Little Leaf Farms is a 3 acre greenhouse that grows baby lettuce hydroponically. They use recycled rain water and solar energy. When there isn’t enough natural sunlight, the LED grow lights come on, which use 40% less electricity than conventional grow lights. The lettuce grows for about 25 days and there is a 24 hour period from when it is picked to when it reaches the grocery store. This is what makes them so different than the other lettuce that you get in the grocery store which mainly comes from California. The competition’s lettuce has already been sitting on a truck for at least a week before it gets to your local store – and at that point, it’s probably getting a bit soggy, has wilted, or is getting a little brown and slimy in the bag.

Little Leaf Farms has 4 products that come in 4 – 5 oz. bags:

Savory Spring Mix: a delicious mix including their red and green leaf lettuces, arugula and red chard (look at how beautiful it is in the photo above)

Super Crisp Green Leaf

Spicy Arugula

Lively Red and Green Leaf Blend

Now let me say that I have generally not like arugula every time I’ve had it. I tried the arugula at Little Leaf Farms and I actually liked it. It is a little spicy and gives you a real kick at the end.

Check out their state of the art greenhouse – this lettuce is 25 days old and is being moved out to the cutter!

After our tour of the facility we came back to the table to eat lunch and do a little blind taste test.

Can you spot the difference between the green leaf lettuce? Which one looks more appealing?

Which arugula looks better? After all, you eat with your eyes. And let me just say that not only was there a huge difference in taste, but there was also a difference in texture. The competition had a chemical, waxy mouth feel where as the Little Leaf Farms arugula felt clean and crunchy.

After the taste test, we sat down to an amazing lunch made by Paul’s wife and her sister. The steak was made using the Momofuku recipe which can be found here. SO flavorful and delicious! It was served with the Little Leaf Farms arugula.

The chicken salad was her mom’s recipe. I’m hoping that recipe shows up on the Little Leaf Farms website soon.

Vietnamese fresh rolls with peanut sauce featuring Little Leaf Finstar.

A delicious salad, made with the red and green leaf mix and topped with Bubba’s vinaigrette (so simple and yet so delicious!):

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 clove garlic

Salt and pepper

Pour olive oil into a small bowl or jar.  With a garlic press, press garlic clove into olive oil, including crushed pieces of garlic in the oil as well. Add rice vinegar. Whisk all ingredients together, it will thicken slightly. Add salt and pepper to taste.

A special shout out to Richard Auffrey, The Passionate Foodie, for organizing this field trip and for choosing some great local wines and ciders to go with our tasty lunch.

Disclaimer: I was invited to be a guest at Little Leaf Farms. I was provided a complimentary lunch and a swag bag with lettuce. All opinions are my own.

Tags: farm, lettuce, produce, products