A couple of weeks ago, I reaped a giant harvest of lettuce — wild lettuce, that is, probably Lactuca biennis, or tall blue lettuce, as it was tall and had blue flower buds before being pulled brutally from the ground. (Unfortunately, I just read that it has a stout taproot, which I did not extract.) Some individuals were 8 or 9 feet tall, a bit shorter than their maximum extension of 12 feet or so.

I left a couple smaller ones in the ground in various spots around the yard because I want to see the bloom, though of course that’s a decision fraught with consequences.

Go Botany mentions that “Native Americans used a decoction of the roots of tall blue lettuce to treat pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and heart trouble.” I did not make any decoction, but as I didn’t actually pull up roots, I guess I still could.

There’s also Lactuca canadensis, also native and tall, but that species has yellow flowers. I see it in the woods, I think, but it’s not in the yard, yet.

*

“Mystics are experts in laziness. They rely on it,
because they continuously see God working all around them.
The harvest keeps coming in, yet they
never even did the plowing!” — Rumi