When to harvest leaks?

I'm growing leaks for the first time (organically of course). I know that they handle cold, but today it's snowing. Should I harvest them now? (If I can find them?) or is it too late?

Hey Boojum;I don't do anything to my leeks but I live in a frost-free zone.In E. Coleman's books, he talks about laying down a thick layer of mulch and straw before freezing temps. and snow.I own a couple of his books and a lot of his info is great even for the west coast.

Uh-oh. BEFORE freezing weather and snow? And of course it's dark and I get up at 5:30 tomorrow. Grrrrrr.

I have had leeks make it through snow and harvested them through the winter. They begin to put up a flower stalk in the spring and become woody. My area is milder than yours, I think. Our winter temperatures rarely go below 20 degrees for more than a week, and stay above actual freezing during the day most of the time. Your leeks are probably fine for now, but you may want to mulch with straw if you regularly get freezing and cold. Anther option would be to harvest most of them, make lots of leek soup to freeze, and make an experiment of the ones left in the ground to see how they do in your area.

I tried to harvest them but the ground is too frozen!

That's too bad. I wonder if they'll be any good still if you have a thaw and can get them out of the ground. The tops still look good.

I will try if there's a January thaw. Good idea. But knowing our frozen soil.....it prolly will come out in late April early May. I think there are 4 of them and the one in the pic is the biggest of the lot.

I would have harvested the green tops and used those at least since they don't look black and mushy. We use the greens to flavour soups and stews. Think of the garden as an extension of your freezer. :)

boojum, I think they'll be fine. Remember, they're in the garlic family. I still have a batch of them in the ground too. What I'm wondering is whether my cabbage patch is still alive under all that snow!

Ha! (Picturing a snow covered cabbage patch is fun!)