Leeks (tops included)

If you've been around long enough to try leek soup or pasta with leeks then you've probably also always been told that you just toss the tops in either water to make stock or the compost bin to make dirt.  They're simply to tough to eat.

That's never stopped people before.  Coq a Vin recipes took the same challenge with old chickens and made a tough old bird tasty again.  You can do the same thing with leeks.  One easy method for using these nutritious tops is to just make a soup and puree it until the bits are too small to even need chewing. Another as mentioned in The Spruce Eats is to cook them long and low as you would any though food to make it tender as in these Buttered Leeks.

Other interesting ways to use leeks (not just the tops) are:
1. As pizza toppings
2. Grilled on a hamburger
3. Sauteed until soft and added to quiche
4. Wrapped around meats and grilled

What are your favorite ways to use leeks?

Wonderful Weeds

The heat is up and all of my plants are growing like, uh well, weeds.  All thanks to the actual weeds growing in among the plants  The four o' clocks especially are blooming in the morning. By this time they are usually just hanging on and waiting for September to roll around.
The cantaloupe plant has started growing again after fruiting and I hope to see new flowers soon for a possible fall crop.
The tomatoes in the back are a healthy green with many flowers. Trying to pollinate early in the morning before the heat rises in hopes of having more tomatoes.  Not much of a crop yet this year.
Planted some leek bottoms which are already double the size they started out as and are still very healthy looking. Hopefully they'll keep it up and we'll have leeks available all year.

Leek, Zucchini and Potato Soup

We made a nice veggie soup yesterday (with chicken stock).
We cut up the light part of the leeks into thin slices and sauteed it in oil with garlic until tender. Added the potato, only one, cut up into small cubes and two cups of stock. Cooked it down for a little more than 20 minutes until the veggies were soft and threw it in the blender.
It still needed a little more salt
I also added a little shredded cheese to it to make it creamier. I should have added bacon but then it would have been even fattier so I refrained.
Had it again today for lunch.

Lettuce

I was out and about today and saw the most beautiful lettuce so far this season. It's yellow flowers shining in the sun while the already ripening plump beans weighed on the flower stalk. They also had a lot of other veggies growing including leeks and cabbage. Their flower variety was also impressive with iris and rose and a few lillies. Work was in progress though and I'll have to wait a week or so for it to all be done it seems.

Surviving the Cold

The onion bed has sprouted quite a few onions this fall. I expect them to do pretty well since the mirror is in place and will keep them pretty warm during the day. Some of them might be leeks by the looks of it but we'll eat those too.

An unfortunate arrival is this litle squash, the first on this year to actually show up. I don't have much hope for him surviving but who knows. I still think we're going to have a pretty mild winter this year and he just might get big enough to eat.

Spring Yet?

It sure is here. I weeded my strawberry patch and lo there are fifteen plants and alomst half of them already have flowers. The most promising one is about to fruit and has six flowers alone.
I put my plumeria out today to get some real sun and start to acclimate to the outside again.
Thoughts of a sunnier backyard are still making endroads into my imagination and may be a reality sooner than I would have thought. I really need some sun in the back for all of the veggies that I have growing and wish to grow.
The lettuce is blooming and will make some good seed soon. I intend to harvest the seed and replant in abundance at intervals for young greens.
I also seem to have more leeks than I thought I had planted. Some have come up near the garlic and are very happy with their location.
If I can keep the cats out of the boxes then all should be well this season.