leek

All posts tagged leek

Beanie Babies escape Jack Frost

Posted by gardenpathfood on June 8, 2013
Posted in: Background Information, Eating Seasons, Food, The plants in my garden, Winter Foods. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

It’s been a very warm winter so far and that is the only way I can account for the fact that I still have bulk tomatoes and that there are bean babies coming up in the garden.  You might have noticed that we have been eating butter beans for about 5 months now and in spite of it theoretically being winter, we are still getting a small crop. Beanie BabiesWhen the crop was very heavy, I must have let a few stay on the vine and during a recent dry spell, I found a lot of dried pods with great seeds in them so I have stored them for next summer but….some must have escaped my eagle eye and…we have babies under the frost covers.

For those who didn’t notice that we have been eating butter beans, I am starting some new pages which will record what we are eating/harvesting and what major activities I am undertaking for that month. Look for the page ‘This Month’s Harvest’.

So, the photo below shows the foods which I have been harvesting in this month, although I have forgotten the lemons and limes.  I’ll put them in next months’s photos just so you know.   

June Harvest

Onion Breath

Posted by gardenpathfood on November 17, 2012
Posted in: Autumn foods, Autumn jobs, Eating Seasons, Food, Health, Links to other sites, Spring foods, Summer foods, The plants in my garden, Work Season. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

November bounty

Onions are very good for you and have been used by many cultures for their health benefits and apparently they are the world’s biggest horticultural crop, after tomatoes.

According to this website:

http://www.vegetarian-nutrition.info/updates/onions.php

health benefits include relief from asthma, coughs, colds, cardiovascular problems and stomach cancer.

So, I will happily be putting my little red onions on my sandwiches, in my salads and anywhere else I can use them.  There are lots in the garden and since I planted them a bit close, I am picking out the bigger ones now to allow the others to grow.

This collection of garden produce above (and the red throat emperor caught by my husband) became Emperor with red onion and tarragon in white wine sauce.

I have only just discovered Tarragon. I didn’t realise what it was that I love so much in the occasional dish we had eaten out, but now I do know, I will be using a lot more of it.

There have been a mile of strawberries this season and this year they have a particularly sweet, toffee smell. We  have them for breakfast every morning, but we have had so many that this lot teamed up with maple syrup and home- made ice-cream for dessert.  I love strawberry season!!

Phoenix rising

Posted by gardenpathfood on October 17, 2012
Posted in: Autumn foods, Autumn jobs, Eating Seasons, Food, Spring foods, The plants in my garden, Winter Foods, Work Season. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Like a phoenix rising…well not from the ashes but I do decapitate them.

Commercially leeks are usually plucked out roots and all but I cut them off with a sharp knife just slightly below ground level, and they regrow. Normally I let those go to seed to produce babies somewhere in the garden.

Although my leeks, particularly the regrown ones are not as long as commercial leeks (look at the climate I live in), each one I cut usually provides the two of us us with all we need for an additional steamed vegetable.  Instead of letting this one go to seed, I will see if we can cOctober Gardenut it and go for a third use.

I love the look of leeks and onions in the garden.  They provide structure, colour and texture.

Even pure vegetable gardens can be amazingly  decorative and look so different at the change of season but I also love the look of edible plants in the decorative garden.  See my next post.

Wholefoods in October

Posted by gardenpathfood on October 7, 2012
Posted in: Eating Seasons, Food, Recipes, Spring foods, The plants in my garden. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Today’s Haul

This was the basis for our dinner tonight.  All of these things are most definitely in season at home at the moment.  As my husbands says ‘Something that cooks up as dark and fresh looking as the silverbeet, has to be good for you.’

I usually add a tiny bit of fresh lemon juice to the kale and silverbeet after cooking since I like the tang that it adds.

This lovely fresh asparagus requires nothing of course and can be eaten raw in salads or very lightly steamed with the other greens.

We usually eat the leeks lightly steamed but I know a lot of people only eat them in casseroles.  We love them just as they are as a vegetable in their own right.

What do you do with leeks?

Take a leek

Posted by gardenpathfood on July 30, 2012
Posted in: Autumn jobs, Eating Seasons, Food, Health, Spring foods, The plants in my garden, Winter Foods. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I think the leek is a seriously underestimated vegetable.! Seriously! Underestimated!

A retooned leek

Everyone I speak to about leeks says ‘They’re supposed to be good in a stew or something aren’t they?’  Yes they are good in a casserole, or a warm vegetable salad, but they are even better as a simple steamed vegetable with a little bit of pepper for extra taste.

Leeks make wonderful soups, whether they are part of a potato and leek soup for example or as a clear soup on their own.

They have the distinction of being a great diuretic, so if you do have a bit of bloating, a bowl or two of leek soup or leeks for dinner at night regularly will probably help. This is definitely a tastier way to go than taking pills, unless you really have to, of course.

In the garden, the leek is easy to grow and always looks good, nice and tidy.  I usually plant them in mid-year as seedlings, and they take 6 months or so to really produce. The good thing about them is that they can stay in the ground for ages, and you can pick them off one at a time.  The other good thing, is that sometimes you can get a retoon.  I don’t pull them up, I cut them off at the base and as you see in the photo, they will reshoot.  The ready-to-eat leek in the photo, is one that reshot from last year.

A previously cut leek

If you don’t get around to picking them, then they will usually seed in the second year, and the result can be seen in the third photo- from the crop that I planted two years ago.

Not everyone loves the randomness of leaving things to grow where they seed themselves, so you may want to transplant these little opportunity babies.

Self seeded leeks