Mexico, ninth producer of lettuce worldwide
Cultivation of lettuce occurs in 22 states of the Mexican Republic, being Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and Puebla the main producers of this herbaceous plant.
In the world, there is a great variety of commercial lettuce, and in Mexico, the most cultivated are the Romana and orejona, although also the varieties baby leaf and escarole.
The cultivation of lettuce occurs in 22 states of the Mexican Republic, being Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and Puebla the main producers of this herbaceous plant, and thanks to the work of the Mexican producers, the country is placed as the ninth producer worldwide.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader), Lactuca sativa L, better known as lettuce, is a soft-tasting plant, usually of an intense green color that gradually lightens towards the trunk and darkens towards the tip. of the sheet.
In Mexico, the production of lettuce makes it available all year round, although there is greater availability in two periods: from February to April and from July to August.
The consumption of the vegetable is usually fresh in countless recipes and as a base for salads. In the last years, four types and/or varieties were harvested in the country: Baby leaf, escarole, orejona, and Romana.
The baby leaf is a vegetable considered special because it is oriented to the segment of the gourmet market, due to its diversity of textures and colors, which is produced in the state of Baja California.
Meanwhile, the escarole type is easy to digest, depurative, and diuretic. It is the vegetable with the highest content of folic acid; the orejona has its long leaves that hug the stem, crisp and dark green, and like other lettuce, around 17 percent is protein, while the Roman is the most common, with long, round, crispy leaves, and of smooth and watery flavor.
This type of lettuce is the most used in the presentation of golden tacos, toasts, and sandwiches, and the states of Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and Aguascalientes stand out in their production.
The cultivation of lettuce began two thousand 500 years ago. The Romans had the habit of consuming it before going to bed, after an abundant dinner, to be able to better conciliate the sleep by its sedative effect, details the Sader in his blog.
