Add these roots to your crop for delicious winter harvests
This allotment staple is the perfect crop to see you through the winter months – what’s more, it tastes even sweeter after a frost, so you can store your roots in the ground! It is best to start with fresh seeds each year for this crop, as they do have quite a short period of viability.
Parsnips are the royalty of root vegetables – roasted with a little honey or chopped into a bubbling stew they are the original winter warmers. These vegetables were the mainstay of most European dinner tables before the advent of the potato. Thankfully, with a whole raft of modern F1 hybrids to try, parsnips are making something of a comeback – and it’s about time too! Many of these boast smooth, white roots. They also have impressive resistance to canker, a disease which often hampered past efforts. Today there are both shorter and longer rooted types, suitable for all soil conditions. Those who want to grow for exhibition can sow tapering varieties that are successful in good, deeply cultivated ground.
Step-by-step
1The earliest sowings can be made under cloches from the end of February, but more reliable results will be had by waiting until mid-March or April. Mark out your rows by stretching a taut string between two canes and drawing a hoe along the line to create straight drills. Make them about 1cm deep and, if you are sowing more than one row, space each one 30cm apart. Do this on a still day as the papery seeds are easily blown away by sudden gusts of wind. Place one seed every 2cm along the drill. If the weather is dry, irrigate the rows using a rose-fitted watering can before you start to sow. Cover back over with sieved soil and water for a second time. Mark the ends of each row so you know exactly where the seedlings will appear. This will make it easier to weed around the crop. You will only need to make one sowing but if space on your plot is at a premium, cultivate radishes or another quick-grower such as cut-and-come-again salad leaves between the rows of parsnips to make maximum use of the ground. These will be long gone before the slow-maturing plants need the extra room.
2Parsnips don’t germinate in a hurry, so patience is a virtue here. Expect the first shoots to push through in about two weeks and the final seedlings to make an appearance after another two. Keep the seedbeds as weed free as possible – remove unwanted plants by hand to avoid disturbing the soil along the rows. Once the seedlings are about 2cm tall you can star
