It’s best to harvest leaves at the base of stems where they emerge from the root crown by pinching or breaking them off at a right angle. A single salad of miner’s lettuce can provide up to a 1/3 of your daily vitamin C, 1/5 of your daily vitamin A, and a 10th of your daily iron. If you’re gardening in zone 6 or higher, it may volunteer year after year once established. Random Acts of Flowers: Learnings From the SF Flower Show, Planting Tomatoes | 10 Tips for Growing a Bumper Crop, What to Plant: Easiest Herbs to Grow Indoors, Grow Plants for Free: How to Propagate Rosemary From Cuttings, Transplanting Seedlings vs. Stems, leaves, and flowers are all edible. Plant it in the shade of other, taller plants or tuck it away where it’s sheltered from the most intense rays of the day. Add some fresh ground salt and pepper and a handful of seeds, and you’re all set. Learn how your comment data is processed. What’s wonderful is that it’s incredibly nutritious and easy to to grow. But it is edible and a great source of vitamin C. Miners used to eat the plant as salad greens, as well as the edible blossoms and stems of the plants. The miner’s lettuce is considered as weeds in some areas. Though I’ve also found it growing in drier soils, it’s most abundant where conditions are mild. Plant it in containers or straight in the ground. It’s not picky about soil quality, though performs best when soils are high in organic matter and kept evenly moist. How to Harvest Miner’s Lettuce. While it grows well in shade, it can also take sun. It’s growing with a zeal I’ve not seen in years and popping up in places I’d forgotten it grew, surprising me at what seems to be every corner. Miner’s lettuce is a perennial vegetable native to much of the western United States and Canada. It was a plentiful green, and its high vitamin C levels kept scurvy among the miners at bay. However, it’s most abundant in coastal and central California. Either take the whole plant home, less the soil, or carefully pinch the stems to take just the leaf. How To Grow Miner’s Lettuce. Find the things that make you happy and grow them. In gardening, as in life, I say, GROW WHAT YOU LOVE. About Miner’s Lettuce. The youngest leaves, which grow at the base of the plant and are first to emerge in the spring, are shaped like small, rounded spades. Scatter sow seeds or plant in rows about 4 weeks before your last spring frost or as soon as soil can be worked. Sow successional every 3 weeks for a continual harvest until mid-spring or later in mild climates. Miner’s lettuce also contains good amounts of iron and vitamin A. However give it a break from west facing, afternoon sun. Everything old is new again, and edible landscaping is an example of this adage. Lots of them! Do your best not to pull stems because the root systems are shallow and entire plants are easily uprooted. Direct Sowing Seeds. You have entered an incorrect email address! Grow it in shade, part shade, or sun. I prefer the leaves when they’re smaller, but it really doesn’t matter. Which is good news, because it’s a green I absolutely love and there are some seasons when finding it is fleeting at best. Miner’s lettuce is a cut and come again plant, and if you don’t harvest the whole thing it’ll keep on sending up new leaves. My go-to dressing is a 1/3 to 2/3 ratio of vinegar or lemon juice to olive oil. Miner’s lettuce got its name during the gold rush when fresh vegetables were hard to come by. It has become naturalized in Europe because of its use as a vegetable. Though technically a perennial in zones 6 through 9, miner’s lettuce is treated as an annual and can be grown in colder climates once weather warms. Sow successional every 3 weeks for a continual harvest until mid-spring or later in mild climates. Foodie Pro & The Genesis Framework. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Identifying Miner's Lettuce. They’re so succulent, they taste amazing no matter how pick them. Pass The Pistil is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and other affiliate programs such as Etsy, affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn fees by advertising and linking to curated affiliate sites. Miner's lettuce has a distinctive growth habit, and an especially easy to spot combination of flower and leaf. How to Harvest Miner’s Lettuce The plant is fairly fragile, and it’s easy to accidentally pluck the whole plant up from the ground, particularly if you are in moist areas. In fact, it’s such easy picking at them moment, there’s no need to plant it anytime soon. You can find it growing in shady, wet places near natural seeps and under trees — wherever moisture collects. « Starting a Backyard Raspberry Pick Your Own. As a rule of thumb, when foraging for miner’s lettuce only take a few leaves from each plant. Scatter sow seeds or plant in rows about 4 weeks before your last spring frost or as soon as soil can be worked. Spring Greens with Jicama, Cilantro & Lime. Seeds are also not hard to find and they tend to have a high germination rate. Miner’s lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata, is a cool-season plant native to the western regions of North America and can be found growing naturally from the coast to the Central Plains. If you are searching for a ground cover to incorporate in the landscape, look no farther than Claytonia miners lettuce. Plant again in fall for an extra harvest before winter sets in. Plant again in fall for an extra harvest … Harvesting just one leaf can be a bit tricky though, since the whole plant is very shallow rooted and pulls up easily. Flowers emerge from the secondary leaves, the ones that are round in shape, and it’s important to leave enough for plants to successfully reseed and grow again the following season. Your email address will not be published. Miner’s lettuce is in full swing here in California, especially after a much awaited for rainy winter. Miner’s lettuce is especially delicious when paired with other mild greens such as mache, tender leaf lettuces, and baby greens, and tossed with a simple salad dressing.