Winter is coming quickly to Denmark and yesterday we spent several hours getting our leeks ready for the winter. Much of our garden did badly this year, but the leeks thrived.
This is not even a quarter of our harvest this year. And many of them are huge--well over an inch thick.
We buy them already sprouted in the spring then my husband plants them in neat rows. He does pretty much all the gardening. I am just an occasional extra set of hands to direct. During the growing season, he does a lot of things I don't understand the ins and outs of... cutting leaves back, removing flowers... I don't even know what all he does.
But now we're getting a hard frost many nights and winter is coming in quickly. Leeks generally do better out than in storage and we lack the space anyway. But we do ideally prep them for the winter.
First we use a digging fork to loosen the ground then pull the leeks up and shake off the dirt. It's important to be careful how we pull them and where we shake them to avoid getting dirt into the top of the neighbors. Overly sandy leeks are not appealing to eat and it is difficult to get all the dirt and sand out even with soaking. Many are so thick this year that it seemed like we were pulling fence posts.
Then we moved the leeks into a sheltered bed and planted them closer together. Ideally we'd have packed them in clean straw instead of just dirt, but we don't have any (mostly use wood pellets for horse bedding).
The wooden fencing on this bed gives a good windbreak and helps shelter them from the worst of the cold (and we added some stiff plastic on part of the open side). Having the leeks closer together than in the growing rows also gives more protection. And the movement and packing makes them easier to pull when the ground is frozen solid. The majority of the dirt was shaken out of the roots then they were set in shallow troughs in a tight row and covered with the soil removed for the next row's trough right next to it. So the roots won't be holding onto huge clumps of soil and the recently broken soil is easier to deal with when frozen.
We generally leave them like this well into the new year, depending on the weather, how they seem to be doing, and how much we use them. Before spring comes, any remaining leeks need to get into the freezer.
What do we use all these leeks for? Well, tonight and last night we had a wonderful, creamy leek soup. We use them in other types of soups also and the greener leaf parts are great for cooking stock. And cut up leek can be good in a number of dishes, like omelets, pastas, and anything else that enjoys a slight oniony flavor. We also occasionally make a main course where leeks are wrapped in a ground meat mix, breaded, and fried in a pan until all is cooked and the breading is crunchy. But that one is a lot of work and very messy to make, so we don't make it often.