Dear Lynn, they are not big leeks! Leeks are one of the only vegetables you can grow to massive size and still taste good. They grow them to massive sizes for village Horticultural shows to win prizes. It is an obsession in some parts of the UK. Highly prized leeks and highly guarded at all times.
My Grandfather had an allotment and grew pot leeks, which means only one leek in a massive pot! He grew them to win shows and used to sleep in his shed on the allotment with his dog to guard them!
Each person has a special recipe for the soil/compost they grow them in and the presentation at shows must be perfect!
Of course to the Welsh it is one of their emblems and rightly so!
if my grandfather won a show in the lots of Horticultural society's there are everywhere, my Grandmother would make steak and leek pudding, now I am getting hungry!
They do it with most vegetables over here, and especially shallots. They have to be the perfect size to fit through a governed size show ring, if not they cannot be entered for the show!
We are but a Nation of Gardeners.
Neil.
