I harvested one of my favourite vegetables yesterday on my first day of two weeks holiday. I am having a staycation! The vegetable is the humble leek. The two I picked where the biggest I have ever grown.
I accidental snapped the root off of the left one, and had to dig down deep to get the entire right plant out. I grew the original leaks from seedlings last year and planted from side shoots that sprung out of the originals grew last year. I took the side shoots, separated them gently, then got a broom handle and pushed a hole in the dirt as deep as the seedling was tall. Then just dropped the seedling into the depression, watered the hole and the dirt filled in. A good sized leek takes about two years to grow in our climate as shows in the picture.
Here is a close up after I washed it.
So what did I do with this marvellous veggie? I made leek and potato soup of course. It was so tasty, and we served it with crusty bread. You can find the recipe in this post titled “Welsh Dinnertime“.
I bet you thought that the title of the post was about weeing in compost or something! Tricked you.
I love Leeks – well done – I never knew thy took that long to row. Like a pineapple. So long to fruit and then the fruit to mature. Cheers, Wendy
Oh, you tricker!! Leak/ leek, can’t fool me!!
I love cooking with Leeks, great for filling in pasties, add to thai spicy soups, hidden in lasagne and pasta dishes that the kids can’t find, used as extender in stir fry…. very versatile veggie. Bit expensive up here tho even at the growers market.
xox
p.s. Good reading in the Mag Gavy, well done. I let the old boy read my copy, I know, I’m a good person, sometimes xox
What wonderful looking leeks – next time push down even further with that broom handle for the leek holes so you get even more pale leek flesh.
The soup must have been glorious to eat!
That is one happy looking garden guy!
I had no idea leeks take so long to grow, (I’ll definitely be eating them a bit more mindfully next time).
Yours look so good.
Wow thats take 2 years to have that big size leeks. You really have patience. I think the wait was worth it and what a good meal it was for you. I ate my first leek with the one we grown ourselves last year. Fell in love with it and so this year we planted many leeks in the patch and containers. Never tasted supermarket one before.
Well done ! If you leave the root in the ground when you break one off, you will have next years seedlings sprout from it.
Hi Gav, Great Leeks Mate !!!
Wee Tea is good for some plants if diluted and used in the correct manner …waste not ny friend.
Congrats on the mag too.