[JohnB47]

I love to put them in a chicken pie with a few carrots and mushrooms and some fried sausagemeat balls.   Top with a puff pastry crust.   Another favourite is sliced and fried, add some butter beans, either tinned or previously cooked, add some cream and top with grated parmesan then pop in the oven til brown on top.   

Both Jamie Oliver recipes, but they are now firmly part of our family repertoire.


Mine are still on the thin side, but slowly fattening up, even now.   They are a late variety, Bleu de Solaise and will still be fine well into next year, say March.

Ah, thanks for that. Mine are Bleu de Solaise too and are smallish also. I'd forgotten that they were a late variety, so there's hope yet. Must grow an early variety as well next year - a neighbours mussleburg are at pulling size now.

[New shoot]

I'm growing Bleu de Solaise as well and got the seeds from Real Seeds.  If you want an earlier variety, I would recommend the yellow autumn leek they do - Jaune de Poitou.  My second year of growing it and now on my 'must have' list.  Its very productive, bulks up fast for a good autumn crop and has a lovely sweet mild flavour    Gets you in the mood for the winter leek harvest to follow 

 http://www.realseeds.co.uk/leeks.html

[GrannieAnnie]

Mmmm, Turkey, leek and mushroom pie!  Lovely!  Or as a veg, sliced thinly, then put in a saucepan with a little butter and black pepper, cover and cook on lowest heat til they are soft. Cooked in their own juices with that bit of butter, wonderful!

[JohnB47]

I'm growing Bleu de Solaise as well and got the seeds from Real Seeds.  If you want an earlier variety, I would recommend the yellow autumn leek they do - Jaune de Poitou.  My second year of growing it and now on my 'must have' list.  Its very productive, bulks up fast for a good autumn crop and has a lovely sweet mild flavour    Gets you in the mood for the winter leek harvest to follow 

 http://www.realseeds.co.uk/leeks.html

Thanks for that . Might try them next year, although 400 seeds per packet is a bit much! Still, I can offer them around.

[sunshineband]

Will they grow more if they are left? Mine are a bit slim at the moment.

Surprisingly, they do carry on fattening up. Last year I planted out some skinny 'spring onion' sized leeks in September and by February most were about an inch in diameter.

(I forgot them - they were in a pot in the corner of the garden at home)

[Growster...]

We are growing 'Blauwgrene (sp) Bandit' this year, and so far they're fabulous, with none bolting so far, and a better girth than we've ever achieved!

We always leave ours in the ground, and never get them out unless we need them. Of course, we dig a few and heel them in somewhere during frost and snow, but nothing smells as nice as a freshly chopped leek (well, that's not really true is it)..

But these Bandit really do fill the kitchen with delightful veggie scent!

[sowitgrowit]

If you have mounded the soil up around them to blanch, scrape it back and cut the leek at ground level. Within weeks it will have pushed up lots of new growth for a secondary harvest. Don't leave them too long though as they will bolt.

Totty

Really?! So I could harvest plenty now, to freeze, and still get another harvest from the same plants?

Crikey. Is it too dark to go to allotment and get some now?!

[mumofstig]

They do come back, as it's what I had to do last year because of leek moth (or was it allium leaf miner  :blink: ) They don't get thick but they do regrow 

[sowitgrowit]

Well, if I could get new (albeit smaller) leeks that seems a great way to do things.  If it's as easy as that to get two harvests, why isn't it the "done thing", I wonder?  Or is it, and I've been living under a rock?

[Flowertot]

They do come back, as it's what I had to do last year because of leek moth (or was it allium leaf miner  :blink: ) They don't get thick but they do regrow 

Now that is very interesting to me MOS as I have loads affected by moth or miner (I don't know which, just know next year will involve enviromesh  ). I was planning to pull up the affected ones tomorrow.  Do you think I should try cutting them off at the base instead?

[mumofstig]

Yes, it's deffo worth trying 

[Flowertot]

Ok! Will give it a go.  Thanks for the tip 

[Growster...]

That is so interesting, Mum! I suppose that a good sign of leeks not wanting to 'give up', when pulled, is that if you leave them for a day or so, the middle leaves start to protrude!

Is this a similar situation to everlasting onions coming back year after year?

[mumofstig]

I think everlasting onions grow from new bulbils formed the previous summer, whereas the leeks just regrow after pruning, as most things will 

[compostqueen]

I pulled some pencil leeks for tea yesterday, and one whopper of a pot leek.  It's nice to have the luxury of fat, thin, eat or leave. Three cheers for leeks. Yay