Lettuce: Just the Tip of the Iceberg

This broad category of leafy greens has a rep for being boring, but they can add awesome structure and flavor to a dish. Anney and Lauren unfurl the science and history behind lettuce.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeart Radio. I'm
Anny and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have an
episode for you about lettuce. Yes, oh, the puns. The puns. Also,
this was a tough one we were talking about before,
as we usually do. It's just a lot of side quests,
as you put it, Lauren, with this one. Yeah, because

(00:29):
lettuce as it is a really broad term as it
turns out, and there's really like a like an origin
story of every well known varietal of lettuce that we
could have gone into. But I think, but I think
are probably their own episodes or many episodes, or would
fit better into something else that's related yet. So so yeah, um,

(00:53):
it's not an episode about like Caesar salad, it's not.
It's not an episode about the evil Bib family legacy. Um. Yeah,
which is a sentence that I didn't know I was
going to have to say until Annie wrote a note
in here about it. But more on that in a second. Yeah, yeah,

(01:14):
because it was kind of like, oh goodness, I could
talk about this specific bridal or this one or this
one or this one or this one, and it's too much,
and it's the holidays we're coming out of and you know,
it's like it was a lot. It was a lot. Yeah, yeah,
we're coming out of the holidays. We are now in
the holidays. Yes, honestly, yes, Um. Was there any particular

(01:38):
impetus behind this one? You know, I was, I was
going through towards the end of last year, and I
was picking all of these topics, and it was all
of these rich, heavy foods that you know, we really
associate with the holidays and with celebrations, and I was like,
would it be funny to follow up like cream liqueurs

(01:59):
with lettuce? Would that be amazing and hilarious and wouldn't
it be great to talk about? So yeah, that's how
that's how it happened. Yeah, and I believe we mentioned this.
It's all a blur the holidays. As you said. We
had our company holiday party, which was interesting experience as
it always is, UM, And there was a lot of

(02:22):
leftover pizza and salad at the end of the night,
which ended early, and I actually I loved it, but
I took home like half a like party tin of salad.
I love salad. Yeah, this was like like like right,
like a like like a solid like like half tray

(02:45):
of heck and salad. Yes, um, yeah, I took home
at least one whole pizza. So we were doing our duty.
We were we were helping. Absolutely, We're always here to
but parties. If you need food or drink to get going,
there for you. Yeah, but that was what I did.

(03:07):
Eat all the salad. Good for you. I've I've I've
let so many aspirational boxes of salad in my fridge.
I feel like I have a lot of friends that
have a similar Like, every time I buy a bag
of lettuce, it's gonna go bad and I can't help it.
I'm like, well, I mean, I understand it will go
bad very quickly. It does, it does. The thing is

(03:28):
that I hate bottled salad dressing and uh, and so
I refused to buy it. But also if I'm like
looking at that type of lettuce and i'd like need
a meal so that I don't murder everyone, I'm not
going to stop and make my own salad dressing. So
I should I should know this about myself. But every time,
again it's aspirational, I'm just like, maybe, yeah, it's one
of those things. It's like a character tree. It should

(03:50):
be on like your D and D car always wants
a salad, never will eat one. Actually jee oh yeah,
that would be on mine. I did think of. As
I mentioned before, I love the show Wellington Paranormal and
reading this research, there's a joke in one of the
episodes where there's an alien species who like clones them

(04:14):
after the humans of the show uh in their image,
but their one weakness is slugs. But one of the
characters has just a very sad salad for lunch and
slugs of infiltrated the salad and that's how they defeat
the alien creatures. And reading through this, yes, slugs are

(04:34):
a real menace from there, I love that. Oh my
gosh um. And then I was reminded h as longtime
listeners of the show, well now I love kale um.

(04:55):
And one time my ex's mother was telling me about
how much she hated cattle and she couldn't believe that
I loved it, and she compared it to iceberg lettuce,
which I don't. I like iceberg lettuce, but I was
like a gas. I was like, how dare you? They
are different things. They're not the same. I'm getting they

(05:21):
are very different creatures. It is true I'm in no
way disagreeing with you. Um. I was she comparing them
in terms of like it's a boring base for other things,
or she said they had no flavor, which I would
disagree whether or not you like the flavor is one thing,
but I would say Kal has a very strong flavor,

(05:43):
much stronger than Iceberg. Yes. And again I like, look,
I'm getting all okay, all right, all right, let me
let me bring you back. UM. So so one of
the things that this all made me think of UM.
And and then I was hanging out with my friend
Jad yesterday and UH, he was like, okay, if you're

(06:04):
doing an episode and let us you need to talk
about let us surprise you which was this local Atlanta
salad bar chain UM. And I was like, you were correct,
I do UM. And it didn't really fit anywhere else
on the outline. So yeah, I looked into it briefly.
It was an Atlanta based salad bar chain was formed,

(06:26):
grew to have seven plus locations UM in Atlanta and
in Houston. UM. Then Uh, in less than a decade,
accrued a debt of five point four million dollars, was
sold to a holding company. And I think is now defunct. Oh, yeah,
we were. We were discussing before that salad bar is

(06:48):
one of my post Well still a lot of COVID,
but after a pandemic mindset, Oh, seems even shadier than
before to to do the buffet, especially cold buffet situation. Yeah, yeah, uh,
I haven't. I uh. We used to go to one.
It was next to the Best Buy and I lived

(07:08):
in a small town, so when we made the journey
to the best Buy, we would go to let is
surprise you. Um yeah, I lived near to one of
the other locations, and so I I think I went
literally once, maybe twice. I'm not. I have to say
I wasn't a big big on the salad bar trend.

(07:32):
I was always like I could make my own salads,
like right right. That was one of the interesting things
about my dad he had. He had a lot of
food choices that me myself, I was kind of like, huh,
which I'm sure he had about me as well. Um,
he would always pay extra money to get the salad
bar for his meal. Huh Yeah, No, not always, I

(07:53):
would say. The restaurants we did that, it was frequently
like you could upgrade to your side. Items could be
just the salad bar as opposed to with other things.
That was always such a thing, what a weird. I
think we did briefly touch on all of this in
our salads episode, but we really should do like a

(08:14):
specific like buffet salad bar. Yes, yeah, okay, uh, speaking
of yes, you can see our salad episode, yes, which
I wrote down twice because I this was a throwback episode.
We did this a while back, um, and I forgot
we did it twice during this out. I think we've

(08:37):
talked about salad and I looked at up and I
was like, oh, yeah, we did, And then I came
back and revisited. It was like, I think we've talked
about salad and I look, oh, yeah we did, and
I already looked up that we did. You can also
see a arugula share our rockets as it's called rockets sometimes.
Yeah yeah yeah, Um, I would say briefly. Humors are

(08:59):
mentioned in here, okay sure, yeah yeah, And as you
kind of mentioned, Lauren, you can check out stuff you
missed in History Classes episode on Lettuce, slavery and the
Bib legacy, which goes into how Bib Lettuce is related
to um, all of those things and much more in

(09:19):
depth than we're even going to approach. Oh absolutely, yeah, yeah,
I mean in general, Um, stuff you missed in history
class does a superb job. If you do not already
listen to them, Um, you check them out. They're great.
They're great humans too. Yes, yes they are. But I
guess that brings us a walk question. I finally, yeah,

(09:43):
well let us what is it? Well, Lettuce is an
encompassing term for a lot of different varieties of of
these plants that grow with with relatively short heads or
clusters of broad, thin leaves, which we harvest and mostly

(10:04):
eat raw as the main body of salads. Uh. Those
leaves come in colors from whiteish too yellow to green
to red to purple, and have a crisp or even
crunchy texture um, and a flavor that can range from
mild too strongly vegetable or herbal or sweet or bitter
in various combinations. Um, they're like a They're like a

(10:28):
real delicate cabbage that like went and got to blow out. Um. There,
they're like they're like okay, um, did you for do
that thing? Like sort of as a joke where you
wrapped a present for someone in like layers and layers
and layers of boxes and paper. They're unwrapping for like
ten minutes, and like maybe in the center it's just
more paper lettuces like that, but like delicious. Yeah, yeah,

(10:57):
it's like it's somehow delicate and it can pack such
a punch, but also in a way that's like I
don't know, it doesn't seem like it would be filling,
I guess, but it's so flavorful or it can be. Yeah, yeah,
I do love it. I do love it. Um botanical

(11:18):
name Lactuca sativa lettuces are a part of the large
asperassier or sunflower family, related to artichokes and dandelions, and
you can see our episodes on those. Um Lettuce plant
though will have a single short stem from which leaves
grow in overlapping, clustered rounds at the center um as.

(11:40):
As the leaves grow and get older, they form an
outer layer around the new leaves that spring up from
that stem. And lettuces come in in two basic types,
headed lettuce, which will grow in these tight ball like clusters,
and loose leaf lettuce, which does not iceberg lettuce is
a headed lettuce. Romaine is a type of leaf lettuce,
although there are looser varieties. But yeah, anyway, um, yeah, so,

(12:03):
so the leaves can grow relatively flat or sort of
scalloped anywhere to full on roughly. Yeah, and if you
let them grow long enough, um, the plant will send
up flower stalks that look like the dandelions, like like
maybe like a dandelion crossed with a daisy, which is
also part of the Astrossi family, and will produce uh

(12:25):
seeds with long floaty bristles like like dandelion seeds. UM,
that will help them disperse. But lettuces are generally harvested
before they do that because they turn better afterwards. And
so yeah, you just replant them from new seeds every year.
If you do let one go to seed, like in
your garden, those seeds will not necessarily produce the same
variety of lettuce that they came from. I'm pretty sure

(12:46):
this is due to their propensity to cross pollinate. Um.
Just aip side gardening note anyway, Let us just do
like temperate to cool weathers and leaves can be harvested
from the outer ring off of the stem as needed,
which is usually what you do if you've got some
in your garden, or you can cut the whole stem
from the root um, which is usually what happens for

(13:07):
sale in a grocery store. And by the way, if
you buy one with like a decent bit of stem
still attached, you can pluck the outer leaves and set
it in water and it'll keep growing. Um. Though, honestly
like more sort of curiosity than like a source of
continuing nutrition, right, I've always been curious about that at

(13:27):
the grocery store, because you can buy the like living lettuce.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, And I'm like, Okay, I don't know.
It's I think it's just supposed to be fresher than
like the same way like like living flowers. Are you know, yeah,

(13:48):
it'll last a little longer in your fridge. Maybe, I
don't know. I don't know. I've always been curious about it.
I'm like the way that you said that, You're like,
is it a Frankenstein's monster is alive? Is this like
a shop of a little horrors? Worry about what's going on? Oh? Goodness?

(14:13):
Uh uh? Anyway, Yes. The leaves are usually um separated
and chopped or torn and served raw in salads, often
with other vegetation as an accompaniment. Um. Sometimes a whole head,
though might be sliced or quartered and served like that,
maybe given like a quick grill to develop some of

(14:33):
the sweetness or bitterness. This is a thing that I
had not had until maybe like five years or so ago,
and it changed my life so so delicious, oh my goodness.
Huh um. The leaves can also be used as a
wrap or a scoop for other foods. Um sometimes used
as a substitute for for grain products like breads or rice.

(14:56):
And again, you know, depending on the variety, a might
be more of like a like a textural element of
a dish meant to allow rich or bright flavors or
creamy or crumbly textures to to really pop. Or yeah,
they might add a distinct flavor of their own. Mm hmm, yeah, yeah,

(15:18):
that was the scoop thing is another side quest I
most went on, because you can buy like at stores,
you can buy let us wraps or let us cups. Now,
just that whole blowing up that I did not go
on that question, but we'll talk about it a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There there are some dishes, like some of my my
favorite like Thaie salads often come with that kind of

(15:39):
let us scoop situation and I'm like, oh, thank you, yes, yes,
so good. Which, by the way, I had Tai papaya
green salads. Yeah, think it was so good. I thought
you would like it. Oh, I saw out a menu
as I said, I think, I said in that episode,

(16:01):
my little brother is vegetarian, and that means we eat
a lot of Thai food when he comes to visit.
And when he came to visit, on the menu, I
was like, nope, I'm getting it. And it was so good.
Oh yeah, but it did have like the salad scoop
a salad like a leaf scoop situation. It was very good. Well, uh,

(16:21):
speaking of I guess what about the nutrition by itself,
Lettuce is pretty good for you, blocks of fiber, spread
of vitamins and minerals and good stuff in general. As
with most vegetables. Um, the deeper the color um, the
more nutrients it's going to contain. Yeah. Uh, you know
it'll help fill you up, I'd say, to keep keep

(16:43):
you going parent with a with protein a little bit
of fat, which is also how it's sort of delicious.
So yeah, uh, I will say. Extracts of lettuce leaves
and seeds have long been used as a sleep aid
and for pain relief in folk medicines in various places
around the world. UM and research has showed that that
lettuces do actually contain a couple of compounds that can

(17:05):
help with those things. Fresh lettuce does not contain enough
to really make a difference. Um. More on that in
the timeline. Uh again save her motto. Before ingesting medicinal
qualities of anything, you should consult with a medical professional
who is not US, because bodies are complicated and more

(17:27):
research is required. Mm hmm. Indeed, well, we do have
some numbers for you. We do. Yes, I would say
the first one goes back to our points made at
the top. There are hundreds of types of lettuce. Yep, yep, yep.

(17:47):
California grows about the US is let us corrupt. Um,
you're the US sala consumption was twenty five point eight
pounds per person. Yeah. That same year, US lettuce production
was valued at one point nine billion dollars. I'm trying

(18:08):
to think of, like what like a pound of salad
really makes like I feel like that trey I took
home from the party might have been in and that's all. Oh,
that's that's multiple pounds of salad in there, I promise,
like like bait based on my like salad bar I mean,
especially once you get into the other vegetables in the dressing. Yeah,

(18:29):
it was cheese in there. It's salad anyway. There have
been several lettuce freecalls in recent years. Yeah, because lettuces
are almost always eaten uncooked. There is more of a
danger zone for for pathogens to make their way from
you know, farm to table with lettuce than with a
lot of other vegetation. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like that's

(18:54):
kind of a source of the butt of a lot
of jokes. Um m m. But James Beard once said,
in defense of lettuce, um many people damn it. But
it adds good flavor and a wonderfully crisp texture to
a salad. It's true. That's true. It's true. I mean,

(19:17):
I think, let us there's a lot of factors going
into weather or not a lettus is gonna taste good.
I've had some bad lettuce in my day, but I've
had some excellent les. Yeah. My like, my like platonic
ideal of a lettuce is so nice. Yeah m hm,

(19:38):
Well people have, I would say, generally love to let
us through a lot of history. Actually, Yeah, yeah, and
we are going to get into that history section as
soon as we get back from a quick break for
a word from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,

(20:02):
thank you, so Yes. Let us has been around a long,
long time. Um. Since at least four thousand BC, people
have been developing new types of lettuce, though there is
some confusion around it because a lot of similar plants
were referred to as lettuce throughout history. UM. So the
early timeline on this one is a bit all over

(20:24):
the place, but here we go. UM. The first known
cultivated lettuce originated in the Mediterranean. UM. The ancient Greeks
were probably the first one of the first at least
to cultivate it, and the ancient Romans followed suits. And
the ancient Romans believed that eating it after a meal
and before dessert would help them sleep, which I think

(20:45):
I talked about in that Sabbath episode. But that's still
a belief, uh in in some some cultures, or at
least when I was like learning French, that was in
my friend Yeah, yeah, for for sure. Like, I find
it super interesting the divide between people who think that
salad is a first course and salad being like a
not a final course but next to final. Yeah, right,

(21:07):
as like digestional aide specifically, yeah, are helping you sleep? Um.
As early as the first century CE, well off Romans
were eating salads that involved lettuce. And yeah, I mean
we didn't really say it, but lettuce is usually involved
in salad, and salad is possibly an even trickier term
than list. But yeah, the ancient Egyptians, you'd let us

(21:31):
as somewhat as a fertility aid because of the kind
of phallic shape of it and the milky liquid that
it produced. Okay, yeah, again it is related to dandelions. Um,
most lettuces that have been bred these days have not
a lot of that going on, but but right, yeah,
it's definitely got gotta gotta sap to it. Mm hmm.

(21:52):
The seeds from the flowers were also pressed into cooking oil.
One of the oldest known varieties romane was feature on
ancient Egyptian bass reliefs. Um and for a long time
most girl and lettuces were used um more as a
medicinal thing for or for the oil from the seeds
as supposed to like eating the leaves, or for the

(22:15):
milky liquid secretion. Sixth century BC Persian kings were said
to have enjoyed lettuce, so it was around people were
eating it, but there. Yeah, the record is a bit murky.
So the next thing I have on here is an
until sixty two, which is when let us started showing
up on English tables as something of a luxury item. Uh,

(22:38):
those that could afford it quickly planted it in their gardens,
viewing it as a cooling agent in terms of the humors,
which is why I kind of recommended that episode. Yeah,
and because of this, many recommended eating it with something acidic. Um. Yeah,
I mean it's also tasty, but share, Yeah, it is.
That's kind of how at least for me, that's how

(23:00):
I usually eat it. Um. Let Us has been grown
in the Americas since colonial times. In the century, some
people used fresh lettuce as an aphrodisiac. So this is
one of the very very few things I've seen that
was once listed as killing your sex drive. Ever, I

(23:21):
found the original, well, I found what I used as
the source in that episode, which I think was salad. Um. Yeah,
and I'm not sure it might have been a joke.
I don't understand old timing humor, Laura, I can't tell,
but it was implying that it would kill your sex drive.

(23:45):
Maybe someone who understands old humor better can help me out.
Can you can you give us? Can you give us?
Like the quote like where like do you do you have? It? Is? It?
Is it around? So a friend of ours, Alex, who's
producer on a bunch of shows, um, has been on

(24:06):
this show, used to edit the show. He gave me
this joke book and there is a joke about let
us in it from the fourteenth century. I think, Um,
I'm not sure if it's the same one I used
in the episode, but because it's in a joke book,
I'm like, well, maybe I'm just the whole thing. Yeah,
uh well okay, we will look into this further. Yes,

(24:27):
it's very important. It is very important because right it
was like literally the only thing we had ever seen
referred to as not an aphrodisiac. So yes, yes, and
somebody did right in with a counter example. I remember
a listener wrote in and was like, well, I've seen
references that it is, which I think maybe I think
can be both, but perhaps yeah, I just didn't understand

(24:50):
the joke. Who knows. We'll get to the bottom. Well,
very important to US UM, and at the time it
was used for a whole host of medicinal purposes. UM.
By the early nineteenth century, there were fifteen recognized varieties
of lettuce in Europe, and in the US people were

(25:10):
making salads using romane by that time. But okay, let's
talk about iceberg lettuce, which I think is what comes
to mind for many Americans. I would love for listeners
from other countries straight in, but for many Americans when
you use this somewhat generic term lettuce, I think a
lot of US are like iceberg lettuce um in many ways.

(25:34):
The year long usage of iceberg lettuce and the US
was the product of technologies developed for World War Two,
also World War One, but much more World War two UM,
things like new ways of pest and weed control, fertilizer production, automation,
genetic manipulation, and centralized farms and factories. So it's like
one of those things where we could have just talked

(25:55):
about this UM, which is so cool to me. Oh yeah,
oh yeah, yes. So iceberg lettus went into commercial production
in the nineteen forties, though it had been grown before
then in the US, and it was the mostly eaten
vegetable in the US. By the nineteen fifties, it was
the lettuce. It was, that's what you were talking about.

(26:17):
Most of it came from California where it was growing
year round. By the nineteen fifties, the transportation of chilled
iceberg lettuce improved with vacuum technology, so that helped UM.
It was more effective. This this new technology was more
effective than ice and it was better at preventing spoiling
ads for cellophane wrap that was frequently used with iceberg lettuce.

(26:40):
Um from the same decade promised cleanliness and freshness. That's
something else I would love to look into more um.
But behind all of this wave of Mexican immigrants were
propping up a lot of the growing and harvesting of
this product, and most were not protected under labor laws,
and it was heavy, physical and laborious work and for

(27:03):
being a much bemoaned vegetable, which maybe maybe I'm projecting,
but that's been my experience that iceberg lettuce is kind
of like the sad letters. Sure right, It's always like,
oh man, like I'm I paid for the salad and
it's got iceberg in it? What are we even doing here?
Kind of situation? Yeah, right, which again, there are factors, Intigo.

(27:24):
I've had bad Iceberg lettuce, but there can be great
iceberg lattus. Absolute yes. But as early as nineteen seventy
nine people were nicknaming it the polyester of salad. No, yeah,
like burn damn. Iceberg lettuce has had a tenacious staying
power despite that, though. Um, lately, I've seen a real

(27:48):
resurgence of a wedge salads, which is if you haven't
seen it, but I bet you have. But basically a
wedge of iceberg, sometimes charred with blue cheese, bacon crumbles, tomatoes,
and other seasonings. Um. And this salad is actually credited
with the so called Iceberg comeback in the US, because

(28:08):
we've got to have a name for all these things
radio of course. Uh. And this is partly because America's
largest producer of Iceberg lettuce, Tenny Mura, and anty I
tried to look up the pronunciation, but I couldn't find it,
So I hope that's correct. We're close, which is out
of California, and they were looking to boost Iceberg's very

(28:29):
soured reputation. So the story goes that they decided the
flavor wasn't something they should so much be leaning on.
So they ran with nostalgia, especially nostalgia around steaks, sports
and fathers. And if you're like me and you're like what,
it's because it used to be a big item on

(28:50):
steakhouse menus in the nineteen fifties. So here's a press
release from them, and this was from like the early
two thousands. I believe Mother Day has strawberries, Thanksgiving has salary,
but historically no holiday has been associated with Iceberg lettuce.
What better product to claim ownership of Father's Day than
the cornerstone salad of steakhouse menus? Yeah, I love that.

(29:17):
One better product to claim ownership of Father's Day? Oh man?
Um well, big companies got involved, like Walmart. They advertise
the whole thing and it works, though perhaps not because
of the whole Father's Day aspects. A good wedge salad
is good. I mean it's just delightful. Yeah mm hmm,

(29:39):
but still darker leafier greens have seen a bigger boost
in recent years compared to the fall and bounce back
of Iceberg considering what it was was. Yeah, I I
will say that, um that a that a wedge salad
is if it's on the menu at at like a
like a dad bar. Like it, like a good solid

(30:02):
dad bar. That's what I'm ordering. I'm excited about it.
It's one of those items where I'm always kind of like, yeah, sure,
and then I get it. I'm like, oh yeah, if
it's a good one, it can be so aces Yes, absolutely. Um.
Here's another rabbit hole for the episode lettuce bowls, which
are bowls that are shaped like lettuce, not made of lettuce.

(30:24):
As we were talking about ceramic or plastic bowl that
a glass I suppose that right, that looks like ahead
of lettuce. Yes. I love these very specialty dish items
that really do. They rose to popularity during the nineteen
sixties in the US. You can find collectors bidding for them.
I love it. I love it. I love it. Um. Also,

(30:46):
you know we love space food. YEP. Astronauts tasted romaine
lettuce that was planted, grown, and harvested entirely on the
International Space Station. I believe we talked about that in
our Space Food episode thinks. So yeah, we've talked about
it in some episode before. But they served it with
oil and vinegar and it was allegedly a big hit.
Oh yeah, yeah, yes, So so lettuce was the first

(31:09):
food grown and eaten entirely in space. Uh. Specifically, they
grew a red cultivar of romaine called out redgis out
out redgis. Yeah I'm saying that right, Yeah, I love it. Um.
They were testing all kinds of things about how it
grew and the nutrients that were produced in it and

(31:31):
the microbial action involved. Um, Like there were control samples
planted here on Earth that was an entire thing. Um.
And furthermore, UM researchers ongoing there's talk about genetically engineering
space plants like lettuces, to contain medicines that human would
need continual supplies of during long journeys. Um, like, for example,

(31:56):
something to protect against bone density loss in micro Ah,
we we need to do an update on space food
for sure. But yeah, so so cool. Um. And and
also like it really did go over well. I mean,
like imagine imagine having nothing but like the equivalent of
like microwave or canned food for a month, and then

(32:18):
someone hands you a fresh lettuce leaf and it's just
like oh, thank you, yes, yes, Like I this is
not the same experience at all. But I have friends
who were helping me through a rough time, and very
much appreciative heart goes out to them. They kept buying
me all these like really heavy foods, and I just

(32:39):
remember breaking down one day and being like, I just
want a salad. I need a salad. I need like
a vegetable. I love all the things that I need
a megable. Yes, So I don't totally understand people in space,
but I kind I kind of get Yeah. I think
I think most of us have had. I mean I

(33:00):
I find that to be a very human experience of
like this is great and um uh. Hashtag lettuce water
trended on TikTok with over twelve million views. Um and

(33:22):
this is what I said I was going to come
back to from the nutrition section because this was a
thing where people were making tea or to say, and
I suppose with a with fresh lettuce leaves as a
as a sleep aid. And okay, there again, there has
been research into compounds and lettuces that do act as
sedatives and pain relievers, but they have only been studied

(33:44):
as extracts. You're probably not getting enough from fresh leaves
in whatever format, whether it's a salad or what I
imagine is not a very good tea. Yeah, it doesn't
sound great and salad, right, right, leaves are charred leaves
one thing? Yeah, leaves. I mean I would like I was,

(34:07):
I was trying to I was trying to think about
it and like like a like a wilted salad um
or maybe like like even like if you get one
of those good Thaie salads and there's like a layer
of romaine chopped on the bottom like kind of to
keep everything else, uh fresh, um, but it's just been
steeping and all of that really good stuff. Like that's delicious, right, yeah,

(34:33):
I mean, if you're going to do there are ways
it can work, but they're very specific ways, right. Just
making tea out of lettuce leaves, isn't I don't. I
mean it's um probably a fine placebo um. So so
if someone else does that, just don't tell them. Just
don't tell them. If it works for them, that's great.
Just don't have make money listening and like throwing their

(34:55):
lettuce at the screen. Oh I'm sorry. Recording the facts.
I love We've got these random TikTok facts in the episode.
I mean, listeners, let us know if you've had it.
It's good, it could be. I'm open to things, right, Yeah,

(35:16):
I like the research, but I'm open to taste and
you know, try sure. Uh. And genetic research is ongoing,
very much ongoing. Um. A recent analysis looked into four
varieties of lettuce from over forty seven countries, and another
looked specifically at Iceberg lettuce and they created a full
genetic map of it. And it was one of those

(35:36):
things where it was both very very dense and I
couldn't get past the paywall and a lot of them,
but the title led me to believe that they isolated
Iceberg to like one specific here. Yeah, concestry. Oh that's
so fun. Yeah. I never thought i'd say this, but

(35:57):
I really think that we need to do a whole
episode on Iceberg lettuce. Agreed, Agreed. I love how many
people looked into it. We're like, we've got to get
to get to the bottom of this. That's that's our
that's our people, that's that's oh yeah, absolutely yes, and

(36:19):
you are also right people. Um, we've gotten a lot
of great listener mail recently. I cannot wait to share.
But if you have any about lettuces, Iceberg lettuce or otherwise,
we would love to hear from you. Yeah, yeah, if
you have some photos of lettuce bowls, yeah, I got
so excited about that. Totally um. But but yes, we
do already have some listener mail for you, and we

(36:41):
are going to get into that as soon as we
get back from one more quick break for a word
from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you sponsoring, Yes,
thank you, We're back with oh salad, no scrambled eggs.

(37:12):
I did get this stuff to make a salad on
my recent grocery cycle run. Good for you, very good
for you about it? Uh, Tracy wrote, I'm currently listening
to the artichoke episode and had to write in, not
only are they one of my favorite foods tried dipping
the leaves in Hollandais, but you missed one of the
most epic food mascots ever. Areadie. The artichoke is the

(37:36):
official mascot of Scottsdale Community College in Arizona. Here is
a Legit dot E d U article about him. I
guess you can schedule him for private events. I have
no idea the origins, but it is fun to see
already merch around the Phoenix area. I'm headed to Italy
this coming spring and I'm excited to try Jerusalem artichokes.

(37:58):
I'll report back also for the sake of heck and cuteness,
here's an update on my puppy Olive. First pick is
her reluctant Halloween appearance as a cow girl. The second
from her puppy school graduation. Oh, it's so cute, and

(38:18):
we have to do food mascots as an episode. But
already the art of choke. I think super Producer Dylan
has bought already the artichoke to our attention before did
not familiar. I I just googled and right, he's a
very friendly looking mascot. I love. I love a friendly

(38:39):
looking sports mascot. I I like, I like friendly looking mascots,
and I like scary looking ones from Afar. I don't
want to be near. Honestly, they both frightened me. But
because I know Super Producer Dylan is a big fan
of like food mascots, and I know he's sent us
like the Raging Okrah one. And then I found after that,

(39:01):
I went on the hunt and found a list of
like top ten scariest food mascots and it was delightful
and terrifying, which is what I wanted. So all right,
all right, I'll put it on the schedule. Yes, yes,
thank you. Um, that's wonderful, okay, Tina wrote Laurence comment

(39:24):
about pop tarts resembling hand pies in the same way
that lions are drawn by someone who has never seen
a lion inspired this collaborative effort between my husband and
me and attached um is a like medieval era composition
of um of a dude holding a pop tart and

(39:48):
and surrounded by these medieval era what are supposed to
be lions, um uh. And the and the meme caption
is we can has hand pies. Mmmm. It's beautiful. It
should be in a museum. I laughed out loud so

(40:08):
hard that I startled my cat. Um. I mean we
should print this. I like, we need a like epic.
It's amazing. I love it. Oh you're also talented listeners,
right heck yeah wow. Thank you to both of these

(40:29):
listeners were writing in. If you would like to write
to us our emails, Hello favorite pot dot com. We
are also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at Saber pod and we do hope to
hear from you. Sabor is production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts my Heart Radio, you can visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers

(40:51):
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.