Description
We’re more than excited to release this shiny new lettuce in the wild. Introducing… Midnight Crunch! An upright, dark burgundy-colored deer tongue variety with excellent market potential. This year, we tested the finished product on unwitting CSA members and received rave reviews! “So stunning!” “So crunchy!” “Wow, that color!!!”
Midnight Crunch was first conceived down in fields of Wild Garden Seeds, where lettuce breeder Frank Morton made crosses of several varieties including Deer Tongue, Merlot, Crisp Mint and Reine d’ Glaces. He sold the resulting seed from these crosses through his catalog under the name “Freedom Mix.” This was a gift to potential plant breeders or folks simply fascinated with lettuce diversity. (You can find several other diverse breeding populations with different parentage on Frank’s website). We planted the “Freedom Mix” back in 2021 and saved seed from several plants that exhibited unique, upright red romaine traits. Since then, we have replanted the seed every year and made selections on our favorite plants, eliminating traits such as bitterness, spines on the ribs, tip burn and early bolting. We think you’ll love the results.
Days to Maturity: 55
Latin Name: Lactuca sativa
Life Cycle for Seed Saving: Annual
Planting Instructions:
Plant Midnight Crunch Lettuce spring through early fall. Optimal soil temperature for germination is 70-85°. Planting depth: 1/8”. Full heads – start indoors and transplant at 12”, or direct seed every inch and thin to 12”. Baby leaf- seed 4-5/inch with 5” between rows.
All of our seed is Non-GMO and Certified Organic by Washington State Department of Agriculture. We grow the majority of our varieties here at Deep Harvest Farm on Whidbey Island while we purchase the rest from other small, organic Northwest seed growers. Finally, all of our offerings are open-pollinated (OP) so that you too can save and share seed from these plants!
