Lots of goodies today, including a new kind of tomato; but first, your Q and A:

Q: Farmer Luca, why do you have so many sizes of lettuce? There’s micro, baby, teen and regular. What gives?

A: We harvest our greens at different ages, several times a week. The youngest greens, micro and baby, are only a couple of weeks old with tiny leaves, and are tender and mild in flavor (some customers say with concentrated nutritional value). They take up more garden space than mature lettuce for the amount harvested, and require more gentle handling in harvesting and processing. Microgreens can only be cut once, but baby greens can be harvested a few times from the same planting.

Teen greens are at a growth stage between baby and mature size, so they are priced in the middle. Teen greens, like baby, can be cut more than one time per planting.

Mature lettuces require the most weeding and watering, and they also produce the most harvestable material per foot of garden bed. Like the microgreens, they can only be harvested once. Harvested at about six weeks old, the flavor of mature lettuce can shift on a continuum from sweet to bitter through the season as weather conditions change in the garden.

We offer all these different sizes because it’s fun to have choices. One size does not fit all! Variety is a delight to the eye and to all the senses.

And that is probably more than you ever wanted to know about the sizes of ARTfarm salad greens.

Today’s ARTfarm Monday, 3–6 p.m.: Sweet salad mix, baby arugula, baby spicy salad mix, cooking greens, sweet bell peppers, lots of fresh award-winning carrots, cherry tomatoes, large tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, ***NEW!!!*** BI-COLOR TOMATOES***, cilantro, parsley, chili peppers, fresh Mediterranean figs, ice cream from I-Sha!