While growing, lamb’s lettuce forms itself into a full rosette of layered, light green leaves with a tightly bunched heart, looking like a miniature lettuce. The leaves are flat and rounded and are part of each sappy stem. Pick leaves early before the plant starts to lengthen; young leaves are tender and delicate to the palate, the older ones are surprisingly tough and acrid.
History and mythology
Lamb’s lettuce, or corn salad, is so widespread in certain regions that it is difficult to trace its exact origin. It has been cultivated in European, and later British, vegetable gardens for centuries as a valued salad herb. During winter months lamb’s lettuce is especially welcome, continuing to grow when less hardy vegetables could not survive. In France it was the custom to eat lamb’s lettuce in Lent, so besides being known there as mocha and Doucette, another name for it was salade de pretre (salad of the priest). It self-sows in the wild giving rise to its two most common English names: legend says that new crops of plants not only appeared at lambing time, but were also a favorite food for the lambs, hence the name lamb’s lettuce. It was also noticed that the wild plants came up most frequently in corn fields, explaining its other name of corn salad.
Cultivation
Choose an area of light, rich soil in a sunny position for sowing seed, first enriching the soil with some fertilizer if necessary, then clear away any weeds and rake the ground. Sow seed in drills about 6 inches (15 cm) apart in rows; cover drills lightly with soil and gently firm down. Keep the plants weed-free and well watered. Watch for slugs and snails. Seedlings will need thinning out to prevent the spindly growth of crowded plants; the discarded seedlings can be transplanted in another bed. Do not let plants mature beyond the “hearting” stage as the leaves become tough and useless, losing their delicious flavor very quickly as they age. Repeated sowing is recommended at intervals through spring, summer, and autumn (fall).
Lamb’s lettuce can be grown in a container together with other salad herbs, purslane, rocket, and mustard. Allow enough room and a large enough pot, window box, or trough for each herb to grow comfortably.
Harvesting and processing
It is not possible to dry lamb’s lettuce; the aim is to pluck and eat the new green leaves while soft and full of flavor. If a few leaves only are wanted and not the entire head, gather the youngest ones first. For collecting seed to sow again, allow one or two plants to grow tall. Tiny mauve-tinted, greenish white flowers will soon appear and eventually form seeds. Collect ripe seed and resow.
Various uses
Culinary
Lamb’s lettuce or corn salad is essentially a salad herb and at one time was classed as a lettuce. An 18th-century cookery writer gave directions for a “Salad for Winter” and said to “. . . take corn salad and horse radish scraped fine, dish it handsomely and serve it with oil and vinegar.” This delicious herb has been well known and appreciated for many years on the Continent and in Britain. Today it has a wide appeal in many other countries, and packets of seed are readily available. A friend who grows lamb’s lettuce once served us the tender young leaves in a subtle dressing at lunch one day; the combination was quite exquisite and seemed to melt in the mouth.
Medicinal
Lamb’s lettuce was once popular as a spring medicine.
