Winter lettuce

[galina]

With chicory/radicchio, it's the light, rather than the warmth, that makes them bitter (which is why you need to keep witloof chicory in the dark). I guess the same is true of endive, since in France, you can buy whole heads of frizzy endive which have been blanched to exclude the light - the leaves in the centre are pale and have a gentler flavour than the outside leaves.

:)

Could be light levels.  I found that by the time these endives were big enough to harvest, light levels were pretty low and the inner leaves were quite pale without blanching.  But even the outer leaves were perfectly palatable. 

I had some in the greenhouse too this spring, which I started very early and matured in late spring in the warmth of the greenhouse and they got too bitter in the end.   By then of course the days were very bright as well as warm.

[galina]

[galina]

I grew these last year and they tasted lovely:

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/447/1.html

I picked one or two leaves from each over winter so we had lettuce when we needed it.  I had mine in a cold frame covered with polythene with a vent at the end and i also had some around the outside of the cold frame.  I live in the east midlands and it stood up fine to the cold winter we had.  The ones outside of the coldframe were great as they grew slower and were ready when the others in the cold frame had finished.

I will be growing these this year again

kippers garden,  how long did they last?  When did you pick the last leaves?