• Home
  • Grandma Hadley's Lettuce

Grandma Hadley's Lettuce

11Reviews
SKU: 0114A
$3.95 to $13.91

Item Details

Donated to Seed Savers Exchange in 1988 by Pam Andrew of Arizona. It was given to her by her 85-year-old great-aunt, Flossie Cramer, of Crawford County, IL. Flossie's grandmother, Emma Hadley, grew the lettuce when Flossie was a child (around 1915). It was a family favorite used in a wilted lettuce salad with hot bacon dressing. The dark purple tinged leaves are buttery, crisp and slightly sweet.


  • 40-55 days to maturity
  • Organic
  • Staff Favorite
  • Butterhead
  • Heavy dark purple tinge on leaf edges
  • Buttery and crisp leaves are slightly sweet


Growing Instructions

Instructions - Sow continuously for a constant supply of lettuce. Best grown in cooler weather. Plant in full sun or partial shade.

  • Direct Seed: 1" Apart
  • Seed Depth: 1/4"
  • Germination: 7-14 Days
  • Thin: 6-8" Apart

Recipe

Grandma Hadley's lettuce came to us with a recipe for wilted salad with hot bacon dressing:

Instructions

  • Fry your bacon until it is crips, then crumble and set aside and save the drippings.
  • In a saucepan, bring 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt to a boil. You can adjust the mixture to taste.
  • Add back the bacon drippings and mix together thoroughly.

Pour the dressing over clean and chopped lettuce, then top with crumbled bacon, diced green onions, and chopped hard-boiled eggs.

Ratings & Reviews

11 reviews

Amazing texture and flavor

by

Please grow this lettuce....It was happy even though I got it in the ground late here in Oklahoma City, zone 7a. It survived a few hail storms and was a prolific producer. I was harvesting three times a week at it's peak. The texture of this lettuce is so amazingly soft, the best description I can give is I felt like I was eating silk pajamas, lol. The leaf has a good shape for easy harvesting and is nice and flat so it's good for salads and sandwiches. It also stored really well in the refrigerator. If I have to pick one lettuce to grow this would be it.

Beautiful, delicious lettuce

by

This lettuce was the star of my garden this summer. Not only was it beautiful, but it grew prolifically and tasted great! Even my husband, who isn't much of a lettuce eater, was asking for salads daily. I will be growing this for years to come!

Fantastic lettuce!

by

This is the best lettuce we have ever grown. It is sweet, buttery as describe, and forms a lovely head. It seems resistant to pests and is incredibly resilient to weather changes.

A favorite

by

One of my favorite lettuce varieties to grow. It is exceptionally tasty with a great texture. I'm in zone 7b in the northern California Sierra Nevada foothills, and I find that it is slower to bolt than other butter head lettuces.

???

by

I planted these seeds in June and again in July, but not one seed sprouted. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but maybe I'll try again this April when it's a little cooler?

Soft as silk butter lettuce

by

I have had good success with these seeds this winter. My only complaint is the birds want to eat them too. The larger the head the more likely you will get a crisp center, otherwise edges do mimic a little bit of the red leaf lettuce they look like. Yum.

Beautiful lettuce, prolific producer

by

We had a chilly spring that sprung into extended heat waves and record breaking heat waves, and this lettuce was one of my best producers. It was very attractive in the garden, quite prolific, and handled our hot weather much better than expected.

Quite a tasty lettuce! I was also quite surprised at how well it stored.

This lettuce was probably my biggest pleasant surprise this year. I rarely grow the same variety twice, but this lettuce will certainly make another appearance.

Will always grow this

by

This was both my and my husband's favorite lettuce we've ever grown, for both taste and for looks. Makes really beautiful heads, and very tender

My favorite!

by

I love this lettuce. It tastes great, it's pretty, and it produces long and well in the winter garden here in the high desert of Oracle, AZ. Holds up well into the warming days of spring. Reseeds well.

Excellent Lettuce

by

This was my first time growing lettuce and I was so impressed with this variety! It was beautiful and tasted great. It survived our Oklahoma spring and lasted into the summer!

Love this!

by

This is hardy and tastes so good!