I've just lifted the last few parsnips from the plot. It's always a sad time, as it's so long until we can eat any more.
It’s been a traumatic week. We're down to the last of the home-grown potatoes, (King Edwards, and very nice they are too), and we've also just lifted the last few parsnips from the plot. It's always a sad time, as it's so long until we'll be able to eat any more.
I’m rather partial to parsnips, especially when roasted with my Sunday lunch. I usually grow 'Avonresister' as it’s resistant to canker, which can be a real problem in this area (hence the development of this variety specifically for growers in Avon). I’ve recently also grown an F1 variety called 'Excalibur', which is good too. It has an RHS Award of Garden Merit, which means it's been trialled, with good results. I've found it to be pretty resistant to canker too.
But it wasn't quite the end of parsnips for me, as one of Paul's lovely customers, Glyn, a keen allotmenteer from Colerne, popped in with a freshly harvested bag of them from his plot. He reckons they’re the best parsnips he’s ever grown – they’re so clean, white, canker-free and beautifully sweet. We had a couple with Sunday lunch and I’m thinking of turning some of them into soup. Spicy parsnip soup from the freezer seems like a good way of keeping the parsnip season going just a little while longer.
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