butterhead lettuce

Put together a mix of bitter and sweet (or don't - the classic French green salad is all butterhead lettuce).

Bibb lettuce, a variety of butterhead lettuce.

There is also 'Debby', a butterhead lettuce resistant to most diseases and also to lettuce root aphid.

Lettuce 'Artic King' This large butterhead lettuce is light green, crunchy and exceptionally hardy.

Mâche mixes well with butterhead lettuces like Boston and bibb, but on its own it makes an excessively mild salad.

The best value is Boston or butterhead lettuce, which is marginally higher than normal at $12 to $14 a case wholesale, 79 cents to 89 cents a head at retail.

Satur Farms in Cutchogue, N.Y., grows lush heads of herbaceous, velvety tender green and red butterhead lettuce, picking them daily and trucking them to several New York markets, including Fresh Direct, where they are $3.29 each, and Gourmet Garage, $3.99.