It wasn’t that long ago, maybe 15 years, that mesclun salad became noticeable on the menus of every cutting-edge, often organic, restaurant.

It was in the ‘70s that Alice Waters opened her first café in Southern California, Chez Panisse, specializing in fresh, local, organic foods, creating Californian nouvelle cuisine. In produce markets, she discovered a steady source of the organic baby or spring salad greens that the “hippie” farmers called “mesclun.”

By the late ‘80s, mesclun had became a household word—if you could pronounce it without sounding like you were ordering a side of serious drugs! Mesclun is the French word for a mixture of young greens; the Italians called it misticaza, and both countries have been eating these tender, young greens for years.

Although the contents of mesclun may vary depending upon growing conditions and time of year,  it generally contains a variety of red and green lettuce such as romaine and oak leaf, spinach, chard, arugula, frisée (curly endive or chicory), and radicchio. In addition, you may also find speciality greens such as kale, endive, mâche, mizuna, purslane, and tat soi, as well as herbs like fennel, dill, and cilantro. Here on Gabriola, a mesclun mix wouldn’t seem complete without nasturtiums, both leaves and flowers.

The salad quickly caught on with the yuppie generation and demand increased. By the early ‘90s, you wouldn’t find many fashionable restaurants across North America without a salad of these greens (and reds and purples). Of course it could never replace the Caesar salad, but mercifully, it managed to supplant that dreadful wedge of iceberg served with Thousand Island, French, or Roquefort dressing.

At that time, organic baby greens were expensive; often over $40.00 per pound, but it was trendy and cool and demand created a market for fast thinking entrepreneurs. One of the first young men to realize the potential in the sale of baby greens was Tom Koons, a former chef of Waters’. He started a business called Tom Koons Organics, and anyone from the food business in the ‘80s may still call mesclun “TKO.” In fact, when I first began to work with Jordan, it drove me nuts when I heard everyone referring to the box of greens clearly labelled, “T & A,” as TKO. When I asked, no one was sure quite why. I knew I would solve the mystery someday!

Koons contracted local organic growers who grew various greens and began marketing to areas out of the California area. With any produce, especially the delicate and very perishable young salad greens, keeping the chain of refrigeration constant is imperative and often difficult. Ensuring that the salad is safe to eat when it reaches a restaurant hundreds of miles away is not easy. It was the larger agriculture businesses like Earthbound, and Tinamura and Antel (of T&A) who “industrialized” the salad business, inventing safe and efficient ways to harvest, wash, sanitize (with a mild chlorine solution) and transport the fresh salad.

Once cleaned, they were packaged into the first-ever re-sealable bags —except for me; I can never get it right and always end up cutting off the zipper part!—and sold as ready-to-eat. They would contract out to other states and Mexico to ensure a good variety of greens. TKO was eventually taken over by Earthbound.

The price of mesclun just kept going down. A 3-pound box of not-necessarily-organic spring greens that we buy for our catering company is now about $14.00. A pound of organic will likely cost you about the same (retail), but that is a far cry from $40.00!

Why eat it? Well, for a start, the dark greens in the mixture will have more nutrition in the form of beta-carotene, calcium, and potassium than the paler head or romaine lettuce. But it is the flavour and attractive appearance that makes most people love it. Or hate it; we regularly have clients who request, “A normal salad; not one of those fancy things.” They probably have had a bad frisée experience; I can’t say that I am a great fan of eating that bitter, Brillo pad stuff myself, and be honest; does anyone really like radicchio?

Now that we can buy these baby salad greens any day of the week, we may have become spoiled by being able to eat salad straight from the bag. As long as the bag is kept refrigerated and properly sealed, there is no need to rewash, but once they are opened, they should be consumed fairly quickly. Buying the salad from a bulk section is iffy; once the packaging is opened, the greens will loose their freshness and integrity, and require a wash. And unfortunately, there is always someone who will pick out all the good stuff, leaving behind the radicchio and frisée!

You could always try your hand at growing your own; there are plenty of packaged mesclun seed mixes available. But it’s not so simple. The various seeds have different requirements, including germination temperature. While seed companies attempt to put together mixes that will grow well together, you could also end up with a bed of arugula. I can tell you first hand that arugula will grow anywhere, anytime, and keep on growing year after year after year!

The easiest way to enjoy the delicate flavour of mesclun is buying direct from one of the fabulous gardens here on Gabriola: fresh, local, organic!