Colorful winter vegetables

I'm adapting a program about creative and attractive vegetable gardening to focus on urban vegetable gardening (for a talk next week) and came across a photo I took of a mid-winter vegetable planting last December.  Impressive, partially because there hadn't a long hard period of freezing temperatures.

Winter vegetables

I love the textures and color combinations and everything I've harvested so far (from the kale to the leeks) has been tasty!

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Leeks fresh from the garden

freshly harvested leeks

I've left an assortment of leeks tucked in raised beds in the mountains through winter. They're so attractive, with their gray-green tops, and hardy, too. But I was noticing that a couple were getting REALLY big (hmm, about grocery store size, actually), and I was thinking that maybe they'd start forming flower buds sometime soon, if I didn't harvest them.

So I was delighted to see that they're in perfect shape (apparently) for eating.

Leeks are a relatively new vegetable for me to both grow and eat - I've just been growing them for the last 3 or four years. French leeks 'Primor' from Renee's Seeds (perfect as small, succulent "baby" leeks) have been amazing, roasted in a bit of olive oil. Yum.

I'm not sure what variety these leeks were -- I'll have to poke through some old posts, perhaps, to see if I can figure that out -- probably King Richard or one of the other standard varieties. I'm remembering that I have grew them from seed in flats started in cold frames early last spring, then transplanting them. Maybe they were 'Primor' actually -- I had harvested most of the leeks by late fall, to enjoy while still smaller.

These are certainly impressive to me as first "big" leeks!

 

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