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PARSNIPS
Well I think it's good news and bad news. How pleased I was when I dug up my first parsnip of the season, the lovely specimen in the centre of the photo. Anxious to dig up another beauty, I quickly located the next one, oh not so good, so I thought let's try another one, oh no another disaster. You see, us gardeners do have some failures you know. I am my no means an expert on vegetable gardening, so I shall have to look this one up, unless any of you out there in blogland could tell me where I have gone wrong?
I did laugh, as I thought how my disasters of a parsnip seemed to resemble something I'd seen on Dr Who. When I came back indoors I looked up the official website, and yes there it was, the very thing right in front of me. I wonder whether the makers modelled The Ood on a mutant parsnip!
Veg Plotting has sent me some good advice, and saying I can still eat them, so right Michelle, this afternoon I made parsnip chips out of them, sprinkled with a small amount of ground rock salt. Tell your nephew that eating them like this is yummy!
10 comments:
See, you are not off the mark at all! You're rather ahead of your time. Think how long it took them to create The Ood and you did it almost effortlessly!
First of all... WHAT? veggies already? Even if you are not in the throes of winter..I hardly expected to hear about things growing already. Is it outside...or a greenhouse? Maybe that is it.
Here I am just waiting for winter.. It is supposed to be cold and snowy right now...but hardly any snow at all so far this year. And, today..was beautiful...like spring or even summer. However, the garden is still mostly covered with the old snow..which has not melted in most areas. There is supposed to be a cold front blowing in tonight and some flakes by morning. I am just waiting for Mother Nature to really whack us with something...or perhaps global warming is in effect after all.
looks just like that guy. We used to watch a few Dr. Who episodes every so often... but don't recall seeing him. yuck....
Oh you brighten my day. Such a fun post about the Parsnips and Dr. Who!!
Well i am no expert on gardening either. I have had carrots looking like this. I just assumed that they grew all weird because there were rocks the roots had to navigate around!! ( ??? )
I will read what our blogger-friends have to say about this.
Thanks for visits to my blog.
~~ Becky
Tee hee - that is so funny. Perhaps I need to send this to my nephew to get him to start eating veggies - he's a mega Who fan but doesn't eat veg in spite of being brought up as a vegetarian.
Seriously, it looks like you may have a clay soil? This is what happens when plants like carrots and parsnips can't get their long tap roots down into the soil. They're still OK for eating though, you just need to lop off the Ood like bits!
What to do the next time? Grow in a sandier soil (vegetable showers create long tubes of sandy soil to get the best results for the show bench) or choose a variety that's a bit stumpier in its growth habit. I've gone for the latter option for my 'so much clay I could take up pottery here' plot.
Yep! I agree with VP. My parsnips were a lot like yours only smaller! I garden on London clay and usually suffer from forking. When I plant parsnips I poke a large hole with a crowbar and fill it deep with sandy compost then plant some parsnip seeds over it. This worked well last year but I made the mistake of transplanting some spare seedlings to fill gaps which did not germinate. They do not like to be moved.
Fabulous parsnips! I grew mine in a clay soil, but I have been emptying the spent compost from my summer tubs, baskets and pots onto it for a couple of years. The parsnips seem to like it, as did the carrots. Might be worth saving spent compost for the future...
I've managed to successfully transplant by using old loo roll tubes as pots. Parsnips don't like root disturbance, so I think the extra length of the tube fools them into thinking they're still where they were before I planted them out. It's getting the seed to germinate that I find is the tricky part.
I'm intrigued by your no-lurking picture Louise. Can you tell me a bit more about it please?
xxx
Aha - commenting is back! You've made me very hungry Louise - I love parsnip crisps! Judith's right about using old compost to give the parsnips a head start too.
That's hilarious!! They should have called him Mr Parsnip-head. You've got me giggling! I'm so glad you could still eat them and I love parsnip crisps too. Why did it happen? Is it something to do with stones in the ground? Ah... now I have just read the comments and I see clay soil could be the culprit. That's what we have too.
Ive never grew parsnips or eaten them but you've struck my intrest. What type dishes are they good in? Also Ive seen compost, clay and other soil types. What if you have good rich topsoil?
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