I suppose Saturday was a fairly typical December day. It remained cloudy all day with the temperature a fraction below what we might expect in early December reaching a high of 6.5°C or 43.7°F.
In May when our parsnip seeds Gladiator were germinating we thought we were going to have a bad parsnip year. The germination was so poor and patchy that Sue sowed a few extra seeds in the big gaps hoping that we might at least get a few smaller parsnips from a late sowing.
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| Parsnips - Gladiator on 21 May 2016 |
Through summer and into autumn the parsnips that had germinated grew well and developed lots of lovely green leaves. I've been caught out before when parsnips with lots of lovely green tops have been very disappointing when lifted. Late in November when it came round to testing a few roots our parsnip bed looked like this.
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| Parsnips - Gladiator on 28 November 2016 |
We've lifted a few roots so far and I've been pleasantly surprised by the quality. Only one root has had a little bit of canker damage around the crown but as it was a large root there was still plenty of usable parsnip once the damaged part had been cut away.
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| Parsnips - Gladiator Harvested on 02 December 2016 |
These three roots weighed in at 1.7kg or 3.7 lbs. If the rest of the crop are as good as this we should be okay for parsnips well into early spring when any roots left in the ground will be starting to grow again.
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what a pleasant surprise with parsnips! Do they taste like white radish?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what white radish taste like. I'd describe parsnips as tasting like extra sweet carrots when cooked.
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