Leeks The Easiest Vegetable To Manage

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Forget what anyone has told you about growing leeks, there is too much thought and fuss behind it. But first let me tell you a little abut this wonderful vegetable that I only discovered since coming to Bulgaria behind it.

Every autumn you will see almost every Bulgarian who visits the bazaar carrying a leek home with them for dinner. It is a funny sight and reminds me of the Welsh comedian Max Walsh We with his giant leek. The Bulgarian leeks are almost as big! Most Bulgarian however grow their own it is so easy!

They are eaten raw in the main, as a side dish to either the main evening meal or with rakia, wine or beer. It is very rare that Bulgarian are without leeks throughout the autumn winter and early spring prior to fresh lettuce salads coming into crop.

Leeks are not grown from seed here other than the traders who sell the established seedlings on in bunches of twenty. These are bought and grown on in most vegetables gardens and smallholding. A hole is made in the earth and the seedlings planted in, watered throughout the remainder of the summer and eaten from October onwards. What could be easier that that? It is that easy hardly any fail regardless of the weather. The leek is one of the most durable vegetables without any diseases to worry about and take up very little space.

The health benefits are numerous without going into too much textbook detail. The fact is that they are far better for you than any convenience food and of course almost free to grow. Their use other than eaten raw is of course legendary, leek soup a classic example. Here n Bulgaria we have leek banistsa (leek filled filo pastry), a great favourite of mine.

If I had to say which was the easiest vegetable to grow, it would be garlic and leeks. You just put them in and apart from a little watering and weed tidying, you have a feast for winter!

Watercress Is Not A Weed

Watercress may look like a weed to most people, but brings back those memories of a crunchy salads with a bit of a peppery bite to it confirming that it is definitely a salad herb. This was something I enjoyed immensely when I was younger, but alas it seems to have gone out of fashion as an outright salad nowadays. I used to gather watercress for the side of small streams where it grew wild, even in the centre of London. The health benefits from this water dwelling herb are far reaching like many other herbs; it's not just the taste and texture that appeals.

Watercress can be cultivated quite easily in your garden. It is well-suited to water that is slightly alkaline which is why it thrives in chalk streams in the south of England. Cress leaves can't be dried and has to be consumed within a short period. Storage life is only 1 - 2 days in refrigerated condition.

Watercress can grow to over one metre in height. The foliage of turns bitter when the plants begin producing flowers. An interesting piece of trivia is that watercress is one of the main ingredients in the mass produced V8 Vegetable Juice and used in many commercially made sandwiches.

This distinctive herb has major benefits when eaten as it contains iron, calcium and folic acid as well as vitamins A and C. It can act as a stimulant an antioxidant, a diuretic, an expectorant and a digestive aid. Treatment for suppressing cancer has also been shown to be positive and specifically helps defend against lung cancer.

Strangely enough many regions consider watercress as a weed as mention earlier and are totally unaware of its potential as a food source. What a shame that education fails in some regions where it grows.

So if you are in a region where watercress grows, give it a try, or try growing it in your garden. It doesn’t take much maintenance grow very quickly and also acts as a great water filter in ponds. As long as you crop and eat it regularly it will be a great addition to the dinner table with health benefits written all over it.

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