Iceberg

Ice­berg Sa­lad

Ice­berg de­ser­ves to be po­pu­lar, at the same time the hero and ene­my of the sa­lad world. The hero for being cris­py, sweet, fresh and easy to use, and ene­my by its do­mi­na­ti­on and for pus­hing ol­der more in­te­res­ting ty­pes into near obs­cu­ri­ty.

This let­tu­ce is de­ve­lo­ped from the N. Ame­ri­can crisp­he­ad va­rie­ties with na­mes like ´Webbs won­der­ful`. It is an ex­cel­lent examp­le of how by simp­le se­lec­ti­on ve­ge­tab­les can be al­te­red to supp­ly a de­mand. Ice­berg sa­lad was the re­sult of gro­wers in the Sa­li­nas val­ley in cent­ral Ca­li­for­nia fin­ding ef­fec­ti­ve ways of supp­lying the mas­si­ve de­mand for fresh ve­ge­tab­les on the East co­ast. The name ice­berg de­ri­ving from the mas­si­ve amounts of ice nee­ded to at­tempt to keep them cool on the long jour­ney (be­fo­re the days of ref­ri­ge­ra­ti­on). This is made fa­mous in the film ´East of Eden` whe­re Ja­mes Dean plays Ca­leb Trask, the son of an ent­rep­re­neu­ri­al ice­berg sa­lad gro­wer.

Gro­wing ice­berg is best left to the pro­fes­si­o­nals who can fo­cus on its strict qu­a­li­ty re­qui­re­ments. Cor­rect choi­ce of va­rie­ties, de­tai­led crop hus­band­ry, har­vest ti­ming and ra­pid coo­ling will all have to be exact. Ice­berg ta­kes a re­la­ti­ve­ly long time to grow for a sa­lad of­ten nee­ding 60 to 90 days and pre­fers coo­ler cons­tant con­di­ti­ons of bet­ween 15-22c. Hot we­at­her or too much rain du­ring the sum­mer cau­ses in­ter­nal ´sli­me` that can dest­roy the who­le crop. This prob­lem is not at first vi­sib­le ex­ter­nal­ly so the­se sa­lads can ar­ri­ve on our shop shel­ves.

The Ice­berg he­ads be­co­me over ma­tu­re a few days af­ter re­ac­hing their pri­me, they be­co­me bit­ter and be­gin to split. He­ads are best when they be­gin to feel so­lid, smal­ler he­ads weig­hing about 400g and the lar­ger he­ads up to 700g. The he­ads should be round, bright green and al­ways ca­re­ful­ly pac­ked. Qu­a­li­ty prob­lems are com­mon, good gro­wers strugg­ling to get the pri­ce they de­ser­ve due to the over pro­duc­ti­on of poo­rer qu­a­li­ty. Ice­berg is an out­door sa­lad and is not ge­ne­ral­ly grown in green­hou­ses or po­ly­tun­nels.

Do not dis­miss the­se sa­lads for being low in nut­rients, in a si­mi­lar way to the cu­cum­ber they can supp­le­ment our diet with nu­me­rous vi­ta­mins and mi­ne­rals. Ice­berg ma­kes an ex­cel­lent base for many sa­lads and is well known as the ham­bur­ger sa­lad.