FOR many people, the world of lettuce has changed enormously in the last decade. The standard is no longer head lettuce, but mesclun, or “baby lettuce mix,” or whatever you choose to call the omnipresent pile of variably colored leaves, tissue-thin and textureless. (I’m aware there’s sometimes a bit of radicchio thrown in there for color and flavor, but the amount is insignificant.)

Mesclun comes from a Niçoise word for mixture, and when it first came to our collective awareness, it was a random collection of trimmings from the garden, never made the same way twice. Gardeners know that it is mesclun that makes spring weeding and trimming a joy rather than a hassle, and, in season, the mixes sold at farmers’ markets are usually quite satisfying. But the industrialization of the product has made it another of the overly expensive foods (as much as $12 a pound!) available year-round whose roots have been lost in the process of commercialization.

Image Stir-fried iceberg lettuce with shrimp. Credit... Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Enter, or re-enter, the loser lettuces, romaine and  dare I suggest it  iceberg, two standbys available in every supermarket in the country, and are especially useful through winter and spring, as we wait for the first of the local greens (and local, real mesclun) to arrive.