digging parsnips in the spring

On Easter morning (April 21) I dug the last of my parsnips. I’ve never overwintered them before but was told they are really sweet in early spring. So I left half of my crop in the ground last fall.

And, yes, they are excellent after overwintering! I roasted them with some red potatoes, and added olive oil, smoked paprika, and curry powder. Really delicious with our Easter dinner.

Easter morning I also dug a couple overwintered leeks (I have to remember to go dig the rest of them soon), and I picked a nice bunch of overwintered book choy. It’s so nice to be getting garden vegetables again! And digging in the dirt!!

parsnips

I dug down a bit around the crown of one of my parsnips today. Yes! A root. I won't pull these til after a frost, but they are coming along.

The past two years I tried to grow parsnips and was not able to get them to sprout. This year I kept reseeding and watering. They start out very slowly.

weeds and parsnips

The photo above is my parsnip bed. Parsnips were my new plant challenge this year. I've never grown these before. Not even sure what the seedlings look like. I've seeded them twice now in this bed. I'm afraid to pull the weeds because I'm not sure if its a parsnip. Can anyone spot a parsnip seedling here? I think the seeds probably did not sprout.

Its just amazing how fast weeds grow in my sunny garden! They grow several inches just overnight. And some of them are very nice looking weeds. My weeds include beautiful tall sunchokes, parsley and cilantro, potatoes, blue flowered ground ivy, horse nettle is just sprouting now, the usual ugly prostrate spurge and common lambsquarter, several types of chickweed, field pennycress, lots of wild garlic, etc etc. (I just got a nice book of New England weeds.)

My garden chores today:

1. Weeding
2. Watering
3. More weeding....

I have some interesting weeds that I have left growing just to see what they are and if they will flower. A little scary. I hope these don't overgrown my garden.

Along with watering and weeding, I do also need to remember to fertilize soon. Tomorrow would be good. I have some 5-10-5 I'll scatter and cultivate into the soil. The plants are definitely using the soil nutrients rapidly right now.

wildflowers, weeds, invasives and natives

winter root veggies

On of my favorite vegetable combinations for this time of year. Its a mix of carrots, parsnips and beets. I wrap the beets in foil and bake at 375 for an hour, then peel and slice the next day. Boil sliced carrots 8 minutes, adding sliced parsnips for the last 5 minutes. Then mix everything in a baking dish with herbs and olive oil and bake for a bit. Good additions are potatoes, celeriac and onions. I have a rutabaga in the fridge I will try soon too. I also like to turn it into eggs and hash for breakfast. Yumm!!!

beets (Beta vulgaris)
potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)