A Real Mess

Mess of Beans is a figure of speech.  We are now talking about a real mess--all over the place.  It started in the lettuce (alone) patch.  Leave two gorgeous lettuces alone on their honeymoon and you'll get some hot action. (See previous post of October 7.)  What followed was a late-night kidnapping of the crown candelabra from the tallest plant.

 I'm in love with this dark, burgundy lettuce.  Garden salads are a staple in our evening meals.  Since we eat plenty of other green leaves from about the yard, the color of this variety makes it enticing and delightful.

A beautiful burgundy colored lettuce--
I believe it is called Merlot--dried for saving

Our dry, hot weather had gone on for months, exceeding all past records.  I became careless.  The middle of the night it first rained, I awoke with a start.  In my Things I get to do today I had forgotten to bring in the multiple seed stalk from the honeymoon bed.  An observer (there were none, fortunately) would have seen a figure in night wear, bent against the drizzle, scuttling quickly to the garden, breaking off the crown candelabra of seeds, tucking it into the loot bag and disappearing just that fast.

Tiny seed head

Pinching off the end tassel allows the seeds to fall out
mess-free

10 to 20 seeds in each tiny head

Stray seeds from each head are mixed with the shards.
These will grow in my lettuce bed.

Set out to dry for two weeks, the seeds now need to be released from their tiny heads and stored safely.  The first attempt, rolling the head between thumb and finger produced the seeds as well as all the protective dried head in shards and thoroughly mixed with the seeds.  What a mess!  

If these were to given as tiny Christmas presents, the separating technique needed fine tuning.  By removing tuft of the head, the seeds squirted out nearly clean.