Aphids in the salad? "They're a garnish!"
The morning my boyfriend broke up with me (the one I thought I would marry, though obviously that didn't happen), I sat in the snow on my patio in Delaware and sobbed my eyes out, planting lettuce in a pot. I was so upset, I couldn't see straight, and the only thing I could think to do was garden. Unfortunately, it was early March in Delaware--not exactly a great time to be gardening. Never mind the fact that I didn't have a yard. When gardening calls, listen, I say.
My roommate at the time had grown up on a farm in Iowa. We were first-year students in the Longwood Graduate Program. I had always gardened, but not grown vegetables since I was probably nine years old. The lettuce was my first foray back into veggies. It would be my last, for a while.
Over the next few weeks, I tended my pot of lettuce and ran out and snagged a rebound boyfriend. By the time he was ready to come over to our place for dinner, my lettuce plants were robustly growing and ready for harvest. I picked enough for a couple of dinner salads, washed and dried them and dressed them with some store-bought vegetables. My roommate gave us our privacy at the dining room table as we munched our homemade pizza and homegrown lettuce salads. Only after he had left did she come out of her room and ask what he had for dinner. "My lettuce!" I excitedly shared. A look of horror crossed her face. "How did you get rid of the aphids?" "What aphids?" I asked. "Organically grown lettuce always has aphids on it." My stomach sank. Did I serve my new boyfriend (rebound or not) aphids? I had already done the dishes! I could not tell! A quick check of the plants out on the porch confirmed that, yes, I had served him aphids.
"Silly girl," my good natured roommate said. I said that if he asked what the tasty green things were in the salads, I would tell them they were a garnish. She didn't think I'd get away with that. We both hoped he just hadn't noticed. She taught me to wash the lettuce in a baking soda and water solution so that next time, my salads would be aphid-free. I have not, thankfully, had a repeat incident.
Which brings me to another great product from I Must Garden and that's the Insect Control. Like all the I Must Garden products its totally natural so I can use it indoors without worry of spraying pesticides. More importantly it's extremely effective, I won't use anything else now.