Bring on the Salads
As the weather gets warmer, fields across the UK are bursting with colour and row upon row of pristine salad leaves waiting to be picked. Enjoy a taste of spring and celebrate the start of the UK salad season with a light, fresh, crisp, home grown salad, packed into bags and on the supermarket shelves in as little as 24 hours, one of the freshest products you can buy.
The UK season traditionally runs from late May through till October (depending on the weather) during which time around 93 per cent of fresh prepared bagged salad leaves will be harvested from salad growing regions across the UK. Last year saw some of the best growing conditions ever with maximum daylight hours coupled with mild temperatures. Growers are predicting 2007 will be even better with harvesting possibly starting up to a month early in some places.
There are around 14,000 acres of salad farms, stretching across the vale of Evesham, the South Coast, East Anglia, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, the west Midlands and Hampshire. Nearly 6,000 acres are dedicated to salad bags, producing around 40,000 tonnes of leaves every year.
Changing Salad Tastes
As summer temperatures have increased, so has consumer demand for the hotter oriental salad leaves such tatsoi and mizuna as well as peppery Mediterranean leaves like watercress and rocket.
Kip Winter-Cox, of the Fresh Prepared Salads Producer Group, commented: "This is the fastest growing sector in the salad market, which is good news for our health as these darker, more intensely flavoured leaves tend also to be more nutritious."
Over 50 different types of salad leaf are grown in this country, from curly Red Oak Leaf and frilly Lollo Rosso to crunchy Iceberg and sweet baby Spinach. We are spoilt for choice with 250 different salad bag mixes available in our stores and supermarkets, providing a fantastic taste as well as a healthy boost of nutrients.
Salads in the UK
The UK climate is particularly suited to growing salad leaves. Crops grown outdoors are exposed to the environment which helps to produce vigorous and healthy plants.
They thrive under long hours of natural summer sunlight, whilst cool nights slow growth to strengthen the tissue. It is from the sun (through the process of photosynthesis) that salad leaves develop their important dietary phytochemicals such as antioxidants which are needed by our bodies to help mop up harmful free radicals.
The UK has built up a fine salad growing heritage with considerable expertise being handed down through the generations.
Nutritional Value of Salads
The variety of highly nutritious leaves available in mixed salad bags can make a substantial contribution to the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of many essential vitamins and minerals. They contain a number of key vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, including calcium, iron, potassium, vitamins C & A and folate.
Salad bags are a great way to help you towards the recommended daily intake of fruit and vegetables, whether as a crunchy side dish, a refreshing starter, or a filling main course.
Just one cereal bowl (80g) of salad leaves counts as one of our five portions of fruit and veg making a bag of salad one of the easiest, most convenient and hassle free ways to achieve your '5-a-day'.
For more information on salads and great recipe ideas visit www.bringonthesalads.com.
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