Hello! Good morning!
How's your week going?
Here... What's new? The truth is, we're still the same as last week: working non-stop 🌱.
I keep traveling to my fellow farmers' fields to harvest produce before the sun even rises.
I know it might seem like a lot of work, but the truth is, for me, it's something I'm passionate about. And both the team and I do it with pleasure.
It's always a delight for the senses to go to the field because, whether you like it or not, you end up tasting the product, and well, it's always good.
As a farmer, I know very well that the taste, aroma, and texture are different when fruit or vegetables are freshly picked.
That's why we strive for you to also enjoy this pleasure, and we harvest upon request. That is, you place an order through the website, we go directly to the tree or the land and harvest a product that reaches your home the next day.
Like this freshly harvested orange you see here:
But, to the point.
Today I want to tell you about romaine lettuce. A few weeks ago, when heavy rains hit Valencia, I told you how Alberto and Javi were waiting for the Poniente wind to dry the lettuces.
That was absolutely necessary because if the wind didn't dry them, they would have to discard them due to a humidity fungus, but the wind came, did its job, and the lettuces were saved. Almost a miracle.
Thinking about that, I want to share a little more with you about romaine lettuce, its cultivation, and a curious fact: it is also known as Spanish lettuce.
This is for a simple reason: it is the most consumed variety of lettuce in our country. But, let's say, that doesn't take away its Roman origin 😅.
And according to studies, it doesn't even really come from Rome. Some claim it has been cultivated for more than 2500 years and was first found in Egypt, others say in Southern Europe.
But there's no doubt that, when it reached the Romans, they named it... And that's how its name stuck.
It's interesting to delve into the history of crops because sometimes we don't fully grasp how long our foods have been around, nor do we think about where they come from. And let's not even talk about appreciating the great effort behind each crop...
For example, in the case of romaine lettuce, you have to plant the lettuces in previously made ridges 25 centimeters apart.
It is important to respect this distance so that, once they grow, they don't touch each other, otherwise there's a possibility of them getting fungus. Then each seedling is planted, one by one, and then... it's time to take care of them!
Vicent, who has been growing romaine lettuce and other products like carrots, cauliflower, and potatoes for many years in the Huerta de Valencia, told me about this process.
Because as you know, in my case, what I like most are oranges.
That's all for today because it's time to go back to the fields, but if you want to know more, I recommend this article from our blog about romaine or Spanish lettuce.
See you next week, a big hug
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