Iceberg Head Lettuce

82 days — ‘Iceberg’ is a very old crisphead-type lettuce variety. Prototypical recipes for the classic wedge salad popularized in the 1940s and 1950s began to appear in cookbooks as early as the mid-1910s. By the 1970s, however, the choice of iceberg lettuce was waning in favor tossed green salads made of leaf lettuce varieties, as well as other salad-type greens. Its heads are fine flavored, medium sized, light green with a tinge of brown in color, tightly folded, and crinkled. In many cases, the exterior or wrapper leaves can be eaten, but it is ‘Iceberg’ lettuce’s signature crisp, blanched white interiors that are generally desired.

By the early 1900s, seventy-four seedsmen were offering ‘Iceberg’ lettuce. Some seedsmen chose to rename the variety so it was sold under various synonyms including; Curled India, Large India, and Weaver’s Market Gardener’s.^[3] Each packet contains one gram, which is approximately 500 to 600 seeds.