What is so special about Buttercrunch lettuce?
Buttercrunch is a beautiful ‘butterhead’ lettuce. The leaves form a soft rosette that looks stunning in the garden and have a mild, slightly sweet flavour. Buttercrunch is frequently described as having a ‘succulent’ or ‘buttery’ texture (which is where the ‘butter’ in ‘butterhead’ and ‘Buttercrunch’ comes from).
It also has good tolerance to heat — meaning it won’t bolt quickly in hot weather.
This is a great lettuce for salads, sandwiches, burgers, you name it.
The humble lettuce is also a nutritional powerhouse. It may sound strange, but the scientific literature contains study after study that reports on its health benefits. In the scientific paper, ‘Bioactive compounds in lettuce’, published in the journal ‘Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety’, the authors write (2021):
“Lettuce, a low-calorie, low-fat, and low-sodium salad vegetable, is rich in fiber, folate, and vitamin C, as well as essential minerals such as iron . Lettuce is also an abundant source of other natural health-promoting phytochemicals and vitamins, including glycosylated flavonoids, hydroxycinnamic acids, sesquiterpene lactones (e.g., lactucin and lactucopicrin), carotenoids, the group B vitamins, ascorbic acid, and tocopherols. Lettuce secondary metabolites are potentially associated with many health-beneficial properties, including antifree radical, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, anticancer, and anticardiovascular diseases (CVDs) effects .”
Lettuce is an easy way to load up on all of this goodness.
We are pretty excited about the different kinds of lettuce we offer and their health benefits. Check out our Musing on the powerful protective effects and health benefits of the humble lettuce.
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How to Grow Lettuce from Seed? Here are the main things to know about growing lettuce from seed. (1) Lettuce seeds need light to germinate. Sow seeds on the surface of soil, press in and cover lightly with soil; (2) Keep soil moist as lettuce has a shallow root system; and (3) Sow or plant out in early spring before weather gets hot. Lettuce will bolt (go to seed) and become bitter tasting when the temperatures get hot. (4) Spacing: In the garden, sow seed every 1-2″ and then thin to about 8-10″ apart when seedlings are 2″ tall.
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