What are leafy greens?

We often refer to a whole category of plants as leafy greens. All lettuces, such as Romaine or Iceberg, are leafy greens. Other plants that we harvest primarily for their leaves (regardless of whether those leaves are actually green in color) like Kale, Pink Swiss Chard, Collard Greens, and Red Mustard, are also considered leafy greens.

Now you might be thinking, "Hey, aren't herbs harvested primarily for their leaves?" And you'd be right! The category names we're talking about here (herbs and leafy greens) are not scientific plant names, which are relatively set in stone. Instead, these category names are based on the plants' predominant culinary and cultural uses.

For example, it's common to call a bowl full of kale leaves or Romaine leaves a salad. If you filled that same bowl with, say, only Cilantro leaves, or only Basil leaves, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone ready to call that (or eat it plain) as a salad!

We have over 50 plants categorized as leafy greens, and you might notice some flexibility with specific plants you find in this category. Take Mini Cauliflower: it's not a fruiting plant (like Red Cherry Tomatoes or Jalapeño Peppers), and it's not used like an herb. Many might refer to cauliflower as a "vegetable", and that's another general category name based on culinary/cultural use. For simplicity, we refer to mini cauliflower as a leafy green, and we don't keep a separate category marked as "vegetables"....after all, almost all of our plants would be in it, and that's not very helpful at all!

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