Green Mountain Celtuce is a remarkable stem lettuce that flips the script on what lettuce can be. Originally from the Mediterranean but beloved in southwest China, this heirloom variety grows for its massive, swollen stems rather than leaves, producing jumbo stalks that stay crunchy, tender, and juicy even as they reach impressive proportions. Hardy in zones 4 through 9, it matures in just 50 days and grows 8 to 10 inches tall, making it a quick addition to your garden that rewards patience with an entirely different eating experience.
8
Full Sun
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4-9
10in H x ?in W
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Moderate
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Green Mountain Celtuce delivers exceptional flavor and a texture that's closer to a crisp vegetable than traditional lettuce, with stems that remain juicy and tender at full size. The Baker Creek test kitchen celebrates its versatility: raw in salads for a clean crunch, stir fried for tender-crisp depth, or even used as a gluten-free pasta substitute. This is a vegetable that invites experimentation and rewards gardeners willing to try something genuinely different from the usual salad bowl.
Green Mountain Celtuce invites culinary creativity in ways most lettuces don't. Slice the tender stems raw into salads for a clean, mild crunch that contrasts beautifully with sharp dressings. Heat transforms it gracefully: stir fry the stems whole or cut for a tender-crisp vegetable that absorbs flavor without turning to mush. The Baker Creek test kitchen also champions it as a gluten-free pasta substitute, suggesting the stems can be ribboned or cut into noodle-like strands for a lighter alternative to grains.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Green Mountain Celtuce reaches harvest at 50 days from sowing. Begin harvesting when the stems have swollen noticeably but are still tender and juicy; the Baker Creek catalog emphasizes that these jumbo stems maintain their crunch and tenderness even at full size, so there's no need to rush. Cut the entire plant at soil level when the stem diameter reaches full proportions, or harvest outer stems individually if you want successive cuts from the same plant.
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“Celtuce traces its roots to the Mediterranean, where the lettuce family has thrived for millennia, but this particular variety found its home and its true expression in southwest China. The Green Mountain cultivar represents a fascinating bridge between Western heritage and Asian agricultural tradition, a variety that traveled the Silk Road of seeds and settled into a culture where stem lettuce became a vegetable in its own right rather than a curiosity. Its presence in modern heirloom seed catalogs reflects both the preservation efforts of seed savers and renewed Western interest in the diverse ways this ancient plant family can feed us.”