Everything about The Leek totally explained
The
leek,
Allium ampeloprasum var.
porrum (L.), also sometimes known as
Allium porrum, is a vegetable which belongs, along with the
onion and
garlic, to the
Alliaceae family. Two related vegetables, the
elephant garlic and
kurrat, are also variant
subspecies of
Allium ampeloprasum, although different in their uses as food.
The edible part of the leek plant is sometimes called a
stem, though technically it's a bundle of leaf sheaths.
Form
Rather than forming a tight bulb like the onion, the leek produces a long cylinder of bundled leaf sheaths which are generally blanched by pushing soil around them (trenching). They are often sold as small seedlings in flats which are started off early in
greenhouses, to be planted out as weather permits. Once established in the garden, leeks are hardy; many varieties can be left in the ground during the winter to be harvested as needed.
Cultivars
Leek cultivars can be subdivided in several ways, but the most common types are "summer leeks", intended for harvest in the season when planted, and overwintering leeks, meant to be harvested in the spring of the year following planting. Summer leek types are generally smaller than overwintering types; overwintering types are generally more strongly flavored.
Growing
Leeks are easy to grow from seed and tolerate standing in the field for an extended harvest. Leeks usually reach maturity in the autumn months, and they've few pest or disease problems. Leeks can be bunched and harvested early when they're about the size of a finger or pencil, or they can be thinned and allowed to grow to a much larger mature size.
Hilling leeks can produce better specimens.
Cuisine
The edible portions of the Leek are the white onion base and light green stalk. The onion-like layers form around a core. The tender core may be eaten, but as the leek ages the core becomes woody and better replanted than eaten. Leeks are an essential ingredient of
cock-a-leekie, Leek and
Potato Soup and
vichyssoise. They can also be used raw in salads, doing especially well when they're the prime ingredient.
Because of their symbolism in
Wales (see below), they've come to be used extensively in that country's cuisine, while in the rest of Britain leeks have only come back into favour in the last fifty years or so, having been overlooked for several centuries.
Historical consumption
Dried specimens from archaeological sites in
ancient Egypt, as well as wall carvings and drawings, led Zohary and Hopf to conclude that the leek was a part of the Egyptian diet "from at least the 2
nd millennium B.C. onwards." They also allude to surviving texts that show it had been also grown in Mesopotamia from the beginning of the 2
nd millennium B.C. The leek was the favorite vegetable of the Emperor
Nero, who consumed it most often in soup.
Cultural Significance
The leek is one of the
national emblems of
Wales, whose citizens wear it - or the
daffodil - on
St. David's Day. According to one
legend,
King Cadwaladr of
Gwynedd ordered his soldiers to identify themselves by wearing the vegetable on their helmets in an ancient battle against the
Saxons that took place in a leek field. This story may have been made up by the English poet
Michael Drayton, but it's known that the leek has been a symbol of Wales for a long time;
Shakespeare, for example, refers to the custom of wearing a leek as an "ancient tradition" in
Henry V. In the play,
Henry tells
Fluellen that he's wearing a leek "for I'm Welsh, you know, good countryman". The 1985 and 1990
British One Pound coins bear the design of a leek in a
coronet, representing Wales.
Perhaps most visibly however is the leek's use as the
Cap badge of the
Welsh Guards, a
Regiment within the
Household Division of the
British Army.
Image:Double Leek Flower Head 2400px.jpg|Two blooming flower heads
Image:Single Leek Flower Head 2000px.jpg|A largely spent flower head showing open flowers as well as developing seed pods.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Leek'.
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