Apparently it’s also called celery lettuce, stem lettuce, or even Chinese stem lettuce. I hadn’t heard of it but, browsing in the RHS Wisley shop, I came across the seeds and they looked like an interesting trial.

So, how have we got on…

The seeds were planted in situ (i.e. where they were to grow) in the raised bed. The germination rate was good and the plants were successfully thinned out.  The remaining plants have thrived, especially since the rain returned to the UK (throughout July). The plants are now about 40cm tall and as we have picked the leaves along the way they are beginning to develop the long (leaf-less) stems.

Both parts of the celtuce can be eaten i.e. leaves and stem. Opinion varies as to the exact eating/cooking requirements:

• Raw leaves – eat the young leaves in a salad. They’re are quite pleasant, mild lettuce taste
• Cooked leaves – haven’t tried them yet but you’re supposed to cook them like spinach. Given how quickly the leaves wilted once the plant was picked I guess you may need quite a few to make a decent serving
• Raw Stem – bitter (if you have ever let lettuce go to seed but hoped you might still get a meal out of it then you’ll know the taste!). Am not sure if I peeled enough of the outer stem away.
• Cooked stem – need relatively young stems, peel before cooking. Seems it can be cooked a couple of ways ie sizzled in butter then braised in a vegetable stock or poached then saute. I tried the first approach and the result was good (very edible), tasted a bit like braised celery. The following recipe cooks celtuce the other way: http://foragerchef.com/celtuce/

Conclusion – for me, this plant offers both the basic salad leaves and a vegetable side dish. It is not knock-out tasty but worth growing, at least for one more year if there’s space, as it was so low maintenance to grow.

(Note: some on-line sites suggest that there maybe different types of celtuce – something to explore next year!)