Ruud Streefkerk

This is part of my project 'Doorsnede' (Cross-section). The Leek plant originates from Eurasia and North Africa, but over 2000 years BC leeks were already cultivated by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. The Roman emperor Nero loved leeks and the Romans spread the plant further across Europe, as far as the British Isles, where it became an important food-plant. As a result leeks became the national symbol of Wales. In the Netherlands, the leek prototype, also called tuber-leek in Dutch, was still fairly common around 1900.