Thursday 16 June 2011

How small is "Small"?

My parsnips are growing quite big now. At least, the leaves are.


At the weekend I decided to thin them out a bit further. I felt that this was necessary in order to ensure that the roots had sufficient space to develop properly. If they are too crowded they will just grow thin and weedy.  So I removed a fair few of them. In the picture below, the gap indicated by the red arrow is 5" / 13cm, which I think is just about right. The parsnips indicated by the blue arrows are ones that should be removed to create the correct spacing.


Taking out a few of the parsnips gave me a couple of opportunities. First, to check their progress. As you can see in the photo below, none of the ones I removed is very big yet, though that's to be expected at this time of year. But you can also see that they are long and straight, without forking, which is good. On the Down side though, some of them have the tell-tale brown streaks of the disease Canker. As long as this does not get too severe, things will be all right, because I know I almost always get some Canker on my parsnips but it is usually only skin-deep and gets removed along with the skin when the veggies are being prepared for cooking.


The second opportunity was this: to eat the thinnings. They are incredibly tiny, and you wouldn't really describe them as a viable harvest, but I thought they might be nice to eat, and it didn't make sense to just chuck them in the compost bin without trying them.


So I cut off the green tops, scrubbed the roots thoroughly, boiled them and served them as an accompaniment to a roast chicken. They were amazingly good! We felt that all the flavour of a full-sized parsnip was already present in the tiny 'babies'. They cooked very evenly too - they went tender without going mushy, and there were no fibrous bits at all. Jane said they were so nice that maybe I should go and dig up ALL the parsnips right away, without waiting for them to grow any bigger.


I suppose I could do the same with Celeriac, couldn't I?  NO WAY!  I only have six Celeriac plants and I really want them to do well this year. Right now they are well and truly small - although you can just see the beginnings of their "bulbs" showing up white against the soil.



13 comments:

  1. Mmmmm....I LOVE parsnips! I also love your wonderful recycling of your postie's elastic bands! :oD

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  2. Sometimes younger crops are much better tasting then a crop that has fully matured. I have never grown parsnips and I really can't remember having eaten any...so I'm not a good judge on them. I say, if you really enjoyed them at this stage then maybe you should harvest some more.

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  3. Haha! If they were that good I would have been tempted to dig them all up too!!

    They look great. I've just sown my parsnips today for a late crop. (fingers crossed)

    Your parsips, beetroot and celeriac look awesome!!

    Martin :)

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  4. They did look good - and I don't really like parsnips! You'd pay a fortune for them as mini-veg in a high end supermarket ;>)

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  5. Oh Mark I could never have pulled those seedlings out - does that mean I'll never make it as a proper gardener?? Anyway they look delicious, I really am tempted to pop over for a meal one of these days.. and I'll definitely be bringing Hazel with me :D

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  6. Hi Mark, your parsnips looks wonderfully healthy, both in leaf and the young thinings. Glad you ate them rather than composting them. You think you are doing badly with only 6 celeriac? Hah! I ended up with just one!!

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  7. Yep, turn down the spare beds, Ali and I are on the way!

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  8. Were they sweet too even without being frosted?

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  9. Your parsnips look great, it is not a root crop that is commonly grown in U.S. gardens but we sure do love them. I look forward to seeing how your celeriac turns out, the plants certainly do look healthy.

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  10. Last week I was at our local central market and saw some celeriacs on the shelves. The first thought was how your celeriac is growing at the moment and got to see it today. I never eaten them.Got curious and thought of planting them but its too late so maybe next time. I think I should thin our parsnip too. I am always bad at thinnings. Always forget about that particular task.

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  11. Ali, Hazel - you're welcome to come and stay, but there's one little snag: the bed in our guest room is a double. Are you OK with that?? ,:D

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  12. Sue, the baby parsnips were certainly sweet. I think the "frosting makes them sweet(er)" thing has perhaps been exaggerated.

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