Salads from Heads Up Hydroponic

Virginia Beach's Verticle Acres uses a hydroponic growing system that produces vegetables, fruits, and herbs petrochemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. Under the label Heads Up Hydrogreens, they provide local CSAs and markets with what they grow in their new facility. I've had their lettuce before and it tastes great, I like getting by their table to see what's new. At the last Old Beach Farmer's Market we stopped by the booth to say "Hi" and ended bringing home a few of their salads. This was new—at least to me—and I was excited to try them out.

The salads were package to stay fresh and included nice, sweet beets and cheery tomatoes. We were given three dressings to use, one being a Green Goddess that I liked. We ate two the night we brought them home and later that week I used one to make myself a nice BLT.

They'll be at the Old Beach Farmer's Market this weekend, Saturday 15 March. Please go down and support our local producers. Buy Fresh Buy Local too!

Hydroponic Lettuce

I swung by the Old Beach Farmer's Market located near the Oceanfront in Virginia Beach. A beach staple, Croc's 19th Street Bistro, provides the space for the farmer's market in addition to participating in it (you saw the James River Oysters I posted right?)

John and Jacob of Heads Up Hydrogreens

It's been a little bit since I've made it out to the market and I passed by a new table for Heads Up Hydrogreens. They grow lettuce that is packaged alive and they contain no petrochemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides according to their literature. I chatted with John and Jacob from Heads Up for a little bit and they gave me a couple heads to try out at home. They handed me a bag with a Batavian Crisp Head and Butter Crunch.

The next day Shelby made spaghetti and meatballs (chicken meatballs!) and I made a Greek style salad with the Batavian Crisp. The Batavian Crisp had a slightly curly leaf, it was in-between the crisp (imagine Iceberg) and Romaine. It was crisp, clean, great flavor and the stems weren't bitter like they are on some lettuce. You could see the bulb and get an idea of how it was cultivated.

Batavian Crisp

Shelby's mother was over for dinner and she really enjoyed the salad. I'm looking forward to trying the Butter Crunch next.