Garlic, onion, 'and eek leek' - Part II

The etymology of leek

Along with beans and cabbage, plants from the onion and garlic family were commonly found in the diet of the Middle Ages. William Langland, author of the 14th century poem Piers Plowman, tells us the kind of foodstuffs that could be expected to sustain poor people between harvests:

And yut ich say, be my soule, ich have no salt bacoun
Ne no cokeney, be …