Last year, my friend Christine at Slow Living Essentials put us onto perennial leeks.
In garden terms, these have been life-changing. We bought seven tiny leek seedlings from Cornucopia Seeds (sadly, they don’t seem to stock them anymore!), planted them in the yard, and watched them grow. They’re smaller than regular leeks, but sweet and delicious nonetheless, and we use them right up to the green tips.
I think our leeks are a slightly different variety to Christine’s, so I decided to take some photos for you. Here’s one we pulled out last week (it reminds me of a Muppet)…
Unlike regular leeks, these grow with a bulbous base, particularly at this time of year, when they’re madly reproducing…
As we peeled back the base, we found 24 bulbils, half of which were already shooting. All of these will grow into new leeks – we simply poke a hole in the soil with a stick, drop in a bulb and water it in…
Before we had perennial leeks, we planted regular ones, which have taken a full year to get to a picking size. Here’s a comparison of the two. Remember that even though the traditional leek is larger, there are oodles more of the perennial ones in our yard, and they’re growing much faster.
After a quick phone call to our friend the Spice Girl for advice, we turned a few leeks and a couple of onions into bhajis. We mixed the sliced vegetables into a thick batter made with:
- besan (chickpea) flour
- salt
- lots of cumin
- coriander
- a little turmeric
- chilli powder
- a little bicarb of soda (baking soda)
- water (added sparingly)
Heaped spoonfuls of the batter were then deepfried until golden brown. They were very moreish with a garlic and yoghurt dipping sauce…
Our perennial leeks taste just like the regular kind, but reproduce like onion weed (albeit less vigorously). They’re thriving in our small suburban backyard, and more than make up for the fact that we haven’t been able to grow onions!
Edit: According to Jerry Coleby-Williams, the variety we grow here in Australia is Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum.
The one that sprouted of Christine’s has died on me but I will try again in our Spring, I have a few left :( Would be lovely to try these of yours one day, they look and sound fabulous and the fact that they are ideally suited to growing in your yard is so great. Curiously the leeks that we grew from seed last growing season went to flower immediately, so we left them to flower much to the bees delight, and now we have leeks growing about six inches tall, the same year from those flowers, self sown I think … wish I knew more about how it all works – all a bit hit and miss our end.
I don’t have any idea how leeks work. If they reproduce by bulbing off, does that mean the flowers are sterile? I will try and collect some seed from these ones for you – a couple of flowering and Pete wanted to cut off the flower stems and I said, “no, leave them for Joanna!”. :)
Those look fantastic. I just poked a handful of garlic bulbs that are on the verge of sprouting into a big pot so they can winter outside. Hopefully the temperature will start behaving like winter so they have a chance to go idle a few months. We’re still near 15C during the day, which is very odd for SE England.
Misk, the cold UK weather should suit your garlic to a T – we have to keep ours in the fridge for a while before planting to simulate frost. It’s weird weather here too – raining and cold, and it’s just a few days off summer!
These look amazing! And I’ve never seen a leek have babies before – can you roast them and eat them or only replant? I’m making a leek tart next week and wish I had yours for the cooking.
Emily, I wish I could send you some of mine for your tart! Sometimes we get sick of peeling and planting the babies so we just eat them, and they’re just like the rest of the leek. It’s nice having them on hand almost all year round in the garden, although if we don’t weed around them, they do grow a bit spindly…
I’ve wanted to try these for ages, I think they are known here as Babbington leeks. So I must get onto growing some, as leeks do take precious space in the vegetable patch, but then winter wouldn’t be the same without them!
And oh, bhajis – adorable, moreish, delicious….. :)
Claire, I think they’re a little different to the Babbington leeks in the UK, but they work in a similar way. Apparently the Babbington bulbils can be used like garlic, whereas these ones are quite small. Regular leeks are hard work for us, and seem to take forever, so we’re just going to grow these perennial ones from now on.
Never heard of them, must ask my farmer friend :)
Cin, I hope you find some to grow over there, you’d love them!
How interesting! I love anything that provides a bountiful harvest. Will investigate asap. Thank you.
Lizzy, it’s a green that’s always in the yard, and I use them right up to the green. When I was growing up, my mother would always stir fry leek leaves, it was common in Chinese dishes, and was always appalled by Western recipes that would only use the white bits! :)
Celia, I love the idea of In My Kitchen and would like to join in. Please would you let me know what I need to do and when. Many thanks.
Lizzy, we’d love that! Have sent you an email.. :)
Oh, that looks fascinating. So, would you continue to plant the regular leeks, or do the perennial ones replace the need for them?
I don’t think we’ll bother planting regular leeks again. They seem to take forever to get to an even half decent size in our yard – the one in the photo above is only skinny, but it took an entire year! The perennials are somewhere between a leek and a spring onion size-wise.
Can I ask how long the perennial leeks have been growing to get to that point? They look like they’re a bit tricky to track down and purchase, but leeks all year round are very worth it!
This is actually our second crop. Last year we planted the seedlings, and they all grew up to small leeks, and we were happily eating them, and then realised that we’d eaten them all, and there weren’t any left for this year. We thought we’d have to buy some more, but to our surprise, a new crop grew all on its own a few months later.
They’re not in the garden for the entire year, but definitely for most of it, in varying stages of growth. Sometimes the leeks get quite fat if we lose one for a while in a good spot in the garden, but at the moment they’re a little overcrowded, so they only get about as big as the one in the photo above (about 2cm thick) or smaller.
You might be interested to read about Christine’s perennial leeks as well:
http://slowlivingessentials.blogspot.com/2010/07/perennial-leeks-most-generous-vegetable.html
Thanks for sharing, these look like they are worth trying
Hope you track some down, Jen! :)
Hi Celia! Could you pretty please post pics of the entire plant growing, after seeing leeks on your site and NQN’s a couple of days ago, I think I have discivered what has self seeded in my front garden bed!
Dimity, it keeps raining and raining here in Sydney, so I couldn’t get a photo for you today, but here’s one I took a few months ago. I’d be surprised if they self-seeded, unless they were planted in the beds originally – I don’t think they’re a “spread in the air” type plant…
I really must get my hands on some of these! I tend to stick to spring onions, but these leeks would be so much better. Oooh, these bhajis look amazing, yumm…
Becca, bhajis were gluten-free too! :) Remind me if we ever get to Canberra to bring you some leeks for your garden…
I remember when you first mentioned these, Celia, and really must try to remember to have a hunt around for them. I’ve restricted the size of my veggie patch so they would fit right in.
Oh, and the bhajis look most desirable!
Thanks Amanda, hope you can find some. I noticed they’re out of stock at Cornucopia, but they’re stocking the Babbington leeks these days too…
This looks like something I should have in my garden. I love that each one grows so many more! I haven’t had luck with onions either so these would be great.
Claire, the problem with onions is that they take so long! We’re still waiting for the ones we planted ages ago to bulb up! :) The leeks are a nice alternative!
Can I come and get some please? would love these in my garden and I haven’t seen any in the nurseries…maybe when I come to get more 99c semolina flour!
Wend, of course you can. Come over whenever. :)
Dear Celia
I can think of making leek and potato soup with these if they grow too wildly. I also like putting finely diced leek into my chicken pie filling instead of onions because it is sweeter with the same texture as onions.
Chopinand, leek and potato soup is one of my favourites! My mother often used leeks in place of onions in her Chinese cooking too!
I like small things, small bananas, small potatoes, small eggplants so bring on small leeks too! Anyone else like their fruit and veg small and cute. Sometimes I will not buy a fruit and veg item if it is too large. My friend bought some huge mangos but, they were horrible whereas the cute little ones I found were delicious. I always suspect large items of being pumped up with artificial things.
Frances, I think you’re right – big things don’t seem to taste as good. Baby strawberries are always sweeter than the giants available at the supermarkets these days…
I learnt something new, I did not know there were different varieties! I usually have leeks growing in my garden so will look out for these :)
So I’ve got these perennial leeks to try and Babbington. I’m an even happier gardener now :)
Claire, look forward to seeing how they grow in your garden! :)
I love these, we have them in the garden and eat them but I thought they were some sort of garlic. No matter, they’re great in chicken soup.
Liz, I think they might be related – I’ve got some of the small bulbils off today, and they smell quite garlicky to me! I love having them in the garden! :)
I love these! And the fried recipe for the bhajis! I am making those as soon as I can get my hands on the ingredients. Thanks Celia- your recipes and garden are always brilliant!
Heidi, thank you, the bhajis are very addictive indeed. I’d like to dip everything in the garden in bhaji batter and deepfry it! :)
I will have to look for some seeds here. Something new to try in my garden next year! Maybe they’ll grow better than my onions! By the way how do you like the taste of the Grosse Lizze toatoes?
Manuela, mostly the indoor tomatoes have been great, although they’ve suffered a bit from lack of sun, and a few of them have been flavourless and mealy. The good ones have been deliciously sweet though. For indoor growing, I might stick with the Apollo – the Grosse Lisse were delicious, but tended to split at the base.
Hope you find some leeks! :)
I’m going to send you some of our leeks sometime Celia so you can compare the two! A couple of months ago I disposed of a packed to the brim wheelbarrow of leeks as they had just taken over the garden! (Be careful!). They have to be the most generous vegetable to have ever grown.
We also have a bag of besan flour in the pantry and I’m most tempted to try these bhajis..yum!
Chris, that IS a little worrying! Ours have never done that (yet), but we’ll keep an eye out, thank you! I think the problem will be if we don’t get them planted out, then they stay little and onion-grass like. There’s about thirty finger-width ones growing at the moment, and a few of them are flowering..