Bleu De Solaise Leeks

I love leeks and have used them frequently when roasting vegetables in the oven. I don't eat them often, however, because a bundle of three leeks in the store tends to be $2 to $3 each, and so I cannot bring myself to buy them. To remedy this, Megan and I are growing Bleu de Solaise Leeks for the first time this year.

First, let me give you some interesting information on leeks in general. Leeks  are included in the onion and garlic family, and form a long stalk and leaves when they grow. I find the flavour of leeks to be much sweeter than most onions and they don't sting your eyes like onions tend to do. In many cases, leeks even act as a nice substitute to onions in a recipe.

Apparently, Emperor Nero, who reigned as emperor of the Roman Empire from 54 to 68 AD, is said to have favoured leeks over other vegetables and believed leeks were beneficial to his voice. For those that don't know, Nero was fond of games and the arts and felt he was a particularly good singer, which is something many historians find amusing, so this fact about leeks and Nero is rather humorous to me as well.

Bleu de Solaise Leeks, which is the variety of leeks my sister and I are going to grow, is a French heirloom. They have the word 'bleu' in their title because after a cold spell, their leaves can get a violet tinge. Apparently, these leeks can be harvested straight through until Spring and frost will actually improve their flavour. In fact, we probably won't be able to harvest these until late-Autumn or Winter because they require a long period of growth.

Since leeks enjoy cold weather the most, it is recommended that they get started in flats 4 to 6 weeks before the last frost. I think that we will start our seeds any week now and hopefully we will have some pictures of seedlings to show you during March.

Jennifer