Parsnips?

[Lumpy]

I have quite a few parsnips growing in raised beds and was wondering if any of them could be saved for the winter.

It's my fault as I willie nillied the tape not expecting them to grow but they ALL did.

It's not September yet so.............can I trim off the foliage in a few weeks and cover them over to keep the rain out like you do with tatties or is it best to just eat the things?



This is one that was pulled (ha ha) today.

[veggiechicken]

I leave them and pull them as I need them. No leaf trimming, covering or mollycoddling here.
They're supposed to taste sweeter after frost.

[cptncrackoff]

Leave them be!
The frosts will improve the flavour and they've still got a little growing time..

[Penellype]

Parsnips are for winter eating, providing you can get them out of the ground! I keep some in the freezer to eat as chips, just in case the ground is frozen solid.

[Lumpy]

The one today was quite big so will all the others just keep on growing and getting bigger? Does the foliage die off for winter (can you tell this is my first time with 'snips').

[Bren In Pots]

Lumpy the foliage does die back, so what usually happens is I have to dig and re-dig the bed to make sure I've found them all.

[Bigmallly]

If & when the foliage starts dying back, put a marker in the soil then remove it when you lift the Parsnip.

[Bren In Pots]

I've tried doing that BM but I still get surprise ones cropping up.

[happyhumph]

Haven't done parsnips for a while, but when I did I always left them in & the foliage got a bit battered but never died & actually often carried on growing, but we're quite mild here.

[greenishfing]

I've just started lifting mine and am trying to pull alternate ones to give the others room to grow a bit more. Hopefully I'll keep picking them until Spring. No mollycoddling here either.

[Scoot]

I usually pick all mine in about December, cut them up and freeze them! That way, they get their frost too albeit, in the freezer.

[Cadalot]

After leaving some in the ground on purpose and having a grand parsnip tree grow and provide me with shed loads of seeds, I will be leaving some to go to seed again as they come from a neighbour who has been saving their own seed and have germinated well unlike the shop bought seed in the past