I hope it is still good and not bitter because it appears it is trying to bolt.

Yes, its still good, maybe the cool weather? I've just taken off a few smaller leaves at a time to add to our abundance of greens. I'm going to let it go to seed & see if it reseeds, just for fun.

Experiments are fun. Back in the winter or spring, I read that one way to "save" lettuce that is about to bolt is to cut it off a couple of inches above ground, dig it up and transplant it someplace else. Supposedly the shock of it being transplanted sends it back into a vegetative growth cycle. Since I had tons of overwintered lettuce, I tried it. I cut them off about 2" above the soil level, then dug them up and moved them to the shadier west end of the garden. All the plants put up new growth and stayed vegetative for 6-8 more weeks before trying to bolt. Thus, I considered it a successful experiment. Sea of Red was the last to bolt, and those in the ground bolted only about 3 weeks earlier than new Sea of Red plants started from seed this spring.

We bought lettuce at the grocery store last week. That was the first lettuce we had purchased since early autumn and it almost killed me to buy it. It never is as yummy, fresh and tender as fresh-from-the-garden lettuce, but since we cannot grow lettuce all summer here, we just have to suffer through eating purchased lettuce for a few months.

Betty, When I have tried to let lettuce reseed, mostly it has fed the birds. I guess they like the seed because they beat me to the seeds every time.

Dawn