Potager Favorites - New Red Fire Lettuce

Yesterday, I told hubby I had picked the last of the lettuce. It was July 25th. July 25!!! And I wasn't totally honest. I still have lettuce in the garden. I had just picked the last large head of New Red Fire lettuce.

I added in some other lettuce, chard and beet leaves

New Red Fire is described as slow to bolt. That's an understatement. It has never bolted on me. I still have two left in the garden. One was crowded in by other heads and didn't form a good head and the other grew off of a cutting when I left two little leaves on the stump.

Two lonely little heads of New Red Fire

We began picking this lettuce in May. We started just picking off leaves, then as the days got hotter we began harvesting the whole head, thinking it would bolt soon. But it never did.

New Red Fire produces a loose leaf head and contrary to my photo above, has a beautiful ruby red color on it's outer leaves. The taste is really delicious, crisp and sweet. Even as the days got hot, it never got bitter.

It was the first lettuce I planted to come up so it is also an early lettuce. This small planting has kept us in salads since May. If I had known how well it would perform, I would have done the whole bed with New Red Fire. It was that good!
I purchased my seeds from Pine Tree Seeds. Lettuce seeds can be viable from 2-5 years, but some I planted from last year never germinated and I am not missing out on New Red Fire next year, so I will be re-ordering. New Red Fire - it's a Potager Favorite.

Photo from Territorial Seeds