The great lettuce shortage of 2018
In the past few days, I have gone to several local supermarkets looking for leaf lettuce. I went to Whole Foods and even they did not have green leaf or red leaf lettuce. The produce manager told me he wasn't even sure when they would be able to get any from their distributor. Finally today, I was able to find two extremely small heads but they were selling for $2.49 each. Now I do only buy organic lettuce but still, I have never seen it that expensive. I usually pay anywhere from $1.30 to $1.60 per head. I live in Western WA and we are very close to farmlands and yet most of our produce is still priced quite high.
- ItsaZoo
- Supporter in 2023
Yuma actually has some of the largest lettuce farms in the country and they grow lettuce in the fall and winter. In August, the e.coli strain making people sick was traced to Yuma lettuce irrigated by water canals. The canals pass by a cattle feedlot and cattle carry e.coli. Investigators had a positive match with the strain of e.coli found in the water.
In spring and summer lettuce is grown in Salinas, CA, so maybe the Yuma growers will have time to figure out what to do next.
In spring and summer lettuce is grown in Salinas, CA, so maybe the Yuma growers will have time to figure out what to do next.
- ItsaZoo
- Supporter in 2023
Target had romaine heads today and the packages of mixed lettuce. Their sign said none of the romaine in the mixed packages were part of the recall. They also have organic spring mix but it’s pricey - $5.99 for a plastic pack. I’m sticking to red and green leaf when I can get it.
- RavenShade
- Thanks for the Memories
We get something called Hungry Harvest (mostly a Baltimore area thing). We've gotten lettuce from them with roots, and we just don't use it all and plant it. HH also supplies plenty of other veg we use. I didn't do the shopping today so I don't know what's currently in stores. Mostly spring mix last week.
Four months after this post Pepino has been having some tooth/neck issues so I am giving him whatever he wants (vegetables) just to get food into him. Romaine lettuce is one of the things he'll eat, it's cheap and easily attainable. Something I've noticed, however, is he is peeing a LOT and his water bottle is almost full so I figure it must be the Romaine--I hear that it is a bladder irritant. Could that be the cause?
^^ Same here, whenever we've fed romaine in the past we've noticed more white/chalky spots on their fleece, so we haven't used it in years.
Seconding growing your own lettuce depending on your climate. If cooler, use a small greenhouse. If warmer, try to plant on a porch or other shady area. Using the 'cut and come again' technique rather than uprooting the entire head means you'll have yields for quite a while from the same plant.
Seconding growing your own lettuce depending on your climate. If cooler, use a small greenhouse. If warmer, try to plant on a porch or other shady area. Using the 'cut and come again' technique rather than uprooting the entire head means you'll have yields for quite a while from the same plant.