Mache, Large-leaf
More cold-resistant than pretty much any other vegetable. Tender silky texture and mild flavor. More like a miniature butter lettuce than a winter green, the plant is small, and usually harvested as a rosette of 2-6 leaves. (The leaves of this variety are larger than other mache, but still bite-size.) A wonderful, easy winter green that you can just scatter in summer, for sprouting when the weather gets cool. This has many names, from several European countries. It was collected in the wild for centuries and brought into cultivation about 200 years ago. Self-sows if you are lucky, but the little plants are easy to pull up of hoe out if you don't want them. Mache is no longer as rare and obscure as it once was--I see it in tubs in the supermarket--but I don't think many gardeners know how easy it is. Hardy below 0 degrees. I start it in September. This and Miner's Lettuce are the hardy, mild little salad greens you can count on for winter. 200 seeds