Baby Leaf Mix 'Mesclun Mix'

Mesclun Mix has been made for hundreds of years around Nice in Southern France. The original idea was to make a salad that touches upon every taste and texture sensation: bitter, sweet, tangy, crunchy and silky. This mix is based on the traditional recipe and contains a variety of lettuces, rocket (arugula) and endive, designed to have a colourful mix of textures and tastes, this mix is a treat for the eye as well as the tongue.

This salad leaf mix have been selected from varieties with comparable growth rates and compatible textures and flavours to provide interesting and tasty baby leaf salads which are ideal for home growing and ideal for stir fry or salads.
They can be grown all year round, for a continuous supply of tasty and nutritious baby leaves. They can be grown in the home, on windowsills or raised in pots in glasshouses or polytunnels in cooler areas for winter early spring crops.

The Mesclun Salad Mix contains:

• Lettuce Red Bavaria - Vibrant maroon, glossy leaf.
• Lettuce Green Bavaria - Glossy green frilled leaf.
• Lettuce Cerbiatta - Green oakleaf type.
• Endive Soldata - Dark green, Narrow with jagged leaf margin.
• Rocket Dentellata - Wild rocket shaped leaf.
• Greek Cress - Green leaf, spicy flavour.
• Mizuna - Deeply serrated leaf.

Sowing:
In autumn and winter seed can be sown into pots or seed trays which can be grown on the kitchen windowsill or in a heated conservatory/greenhouse. Sow 20 to 30 seeds into a 10 to 12cm pot using a free draining compost and cover seed lightly after sowing.
For spring and summer crops, sow direct into prepared seed beds in the kitchen garden or greenhouse border, and this is the best growing technique for spring and summer crops.
When sowing outdoors sprinkle seeds ½in apart in a 2 to 4in wide row covering lightly or broadcast sow. Tip a small amount of seed into your hand, take a pinch and spread thinly along the trench. Cover with soil, label and water. If birds are a problem in your garden, spread netting to prevent them eating the seed. Sow every two weeks for a continual supply of tender young leaf.

Cultivation:
The best tasting leaves come from plants which are grown quickly; this means a temperature of 15 to 19°C (60 to 70°F). Under optimum growing conditions a crop of salad leaves can be ready for picking 3 to 4 weeks from sowing. Slower growing crops can become more fibrous and hotter flavoured.

Once cut the plants should have sufficient energy for regrowth to provide a second or even third crop of leaves, giving a regular supply with "little and often" sowings.

Harvest:
Harvest after approx three weeks by clipping with scissors, most plants in the mix will regrow.

Rotation considerations:
Avoid following radicchio, endive, escarole or artichoke.

Good Companions:
Everything, but especially carrot, garlic, onion, and radish

Bad Companions:
None.

Nomenclature:
Pronounced “mes kloon”. The word comes from the French “mesclumo”, a dialect word from the area around Nice in France, which means “a mix”.
The mix first appeared in supermarkets in the mid-1980s. By 1998, a New York Times food critic, Marian Burros, complained that supermarkets were already “dumbing down the mixture”
Always best to grow your own!