We have all just enjoyed the Easter break, a great family holiday time with top weather to enjoy the great Kiwi outdoors. We loved eating plenty of Easter eggs, and hot cross buns with lashings of butter and jam. Don't we love a holiday, roll on the next one.

In this edition, we look at fresh salads from Adie, discuss our lettuce supply for your best burger, and congratulate our 20th Birthday competition winner.

Autumn Salads

We know that vegetables are good for us and we know that fresh crisp raw vegetables, in a salad, are the very best for us in healthy food.

Salads range from the common garden variety, Garden Salad, which can mean a salad with anything tasty that is in the garden (or fridge) to the smart sounding salads we see in restaurants, such as Salad Nicoise, Waldorf Salad, Caesar Salad.

While mankind has eaten raw vegetable since the dawn of time, the term 'salad' comes (as do many culinary terms) from the French, 'salade' which is from the Latin 'salata'. Salata means salty. In early days salads were seasoned with a brine (salty) solution. The salty brine solution has been replaced by vinaigrette salad dressings ( see live life Sept 2009)

Salads can comprise of any ingredients, we have fruit salads, meat salads and even breakfast salads, pasta salads, potato salads, plus hot or cold salads. Coleslaw is also a salad, from the Dutch, using shredded cabbage.

The common salad theme is, salad uses fresh vegetables & fruits, is usually served as a side dish and will have a dressing or sauce to go with it.

Below are some of my favourite and easy salads, using many of the ingredients that are used by Burger Wisconsin when they create your best burgers;

Mixed Lettuce Leaves w Green Herb Dressing

Leaf Salad

I usually use the lettuces, Buttercrunch, Cos, Frilly, and a little rocket for that peppery bite. Play around and get a combination that you like, of course there is nothing wrong with the good old iceberg lettuce. Any combination of leaves will do, as this is a very easy & quickly assembled salad.

Buttercrunch / Butterhead - have small round loosely formed heads. The leaves are buttery textured and have a sweet succulent flavour. Butterhead is the most popular fancy lettuce variety, and available in green and red colour.

Cos / Romaine - The lettuce used in the Caesar Salad originated from the Aegean island of Cos, and has a long leaf with a crunchy rib.

Frilly / Green Frill - Have attractive crinkly leaves that will stand up on the plate, and have a slightly bitter flavour.

Rocket / Arugula - While not strictly a lettuce, Rocket is a wonderful addition to a leaf salad. Rocket has strong rich peppery taste.

Click here for information on NZ lettuce available

Other salad leaves can be added to your salad to create your own best salad, such as Baby Spinach, Mizuna, Cress, Mustard leaves. Click here for information on these

All lettuce leaves should be washed and dried before using, a salad spinner is a valuable addition to any kitchen. If your leaves are looking a little wilted a wash in cold water and spin-dry then place in the fridge for a couple of hours will revive them.

Fresh Salad Lettuce

At Burger Wisconsin we only use fresh lettuce & salad vegetables in making your burger salad. We also only use fresh herbs for many of our in-store made sauces.

We only use fancy lettuce, Butterhead/Buttercrunch and Red Frill.

We use the premium gourmet varieties because they give you a superior gourmet taste, a taste above other burgers out there that use the standard Iceberg lettuce, because its cheaper. Iceberg lettuce is not gourmet enough for us to use in your best burgers.

Our fancy lettuces are grown especially for us in the sunny Manuwatu, and we have been using the same supplier for 20 years.

Margy & Lionel of Riverlea Hydroponics, are an approved Supplier for the fresh vegetable sector under the 'NZ GAP Quality Assurance Programme'.
All produce is grown and harvested in accordance with sustainable production practices, with all stages of the production process being controlled, monitored, and recorded against specifications to meet NZ Food Safety Standards and Burger Wisconsin's specific needs.

Lettuces are spray-free, no pesticides or chemicals are used to ensure that you are eating natures best. Both varieties are attractive, vitamin rich, enhancing presentation with good colour contrast, and give an excellent healthy choice for any whole leaf or salad mix, with lots of distinct flavour.

Lettuces are supplied still growing to all Burger Wisconsin stores. We keep them growing until we wash them and make up the salad for your burger.

You cannot get a healthier, fresher, crispier lettuce.

"When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look into the reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or our family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change."

Thich Nhat Hanh - Vietnamese Monk

"its pronounced Romaine, like the lettuce"

Rebecca Romijn - Model & Actor