Do You Store Your Root Veg?

[Bigmallly]

I'm thinking of lifting my Parsnips so I can prepare the bed for next year. My plan is to put the nips in storage boxes layered between wood shavings then a lid put on the box. Just wondered if & how you store yours..........please include any root veg you may store.

[sparrow100]

I leave mine in the ground - couldn't you just lift and move them to a more convenient bit of your plot? I'm shifting the 3 that will be left to flower & set seed.

[Alison]

Mine all gets left in the ground except the spuds which are stored in hessian bags in the garage - that said, I've still got some of those to dig up, hopefully this weekend! Carrots, parsnips and swede will all stay insitu until needed, find they keep much fresher that way and I don't need the space until spring so not a problem.

[Bren In Pots]

I do like Sparrow and leave them in the ground.

[Bigmallly]

The Parsnip bed is a lot deeper than the rest of the beds plus it has its own growing medium. I have about 20 that need lifting so moving to a different bed would be difficult. I would normally leave them in situ until needed but I want to try something different next year which means preparing the bed.

[Snadger]

The Parsnip bed is a lot deeper than the rest of the beds plus it has its own growing medium. I have about 20 that need lifting so moving to a different bed would be difficult. I would normally leave them in situ until needed but I want to try something different next year which means preparing the bed.

If you haven't got a storage clamp or root cellar you could do the same as I do with leeks, lift them then heel them in in a clump after digging a hole on a spare bit of ground. They keep growing, stay fresh and the root pruning gives you a longer season!

[Greenleaves]

I lift as required until Christmas then lift, prepare vacuum seal and freeze. Taste just as good cooked from frozen

[Bigmallly]

Thanks for all your advice, after reading your answers I have decided to leave them in situ & by Spring I should have used them up. Thanks again.

[Scoot]

I have a similar problem with my parsnips. I think there's about 50 in the garden still and i was hoping to get some fresh horse manure that i collected dug in so it had time to rot down before next spring. Now i have done exactly this for the rest of my garden apart from where my parsnips are. I can't harvest 50 (big) parsnips cut them up and freeze them as I'd literally just have a freezer full of parsnips.

So i decided to use the manure elsewhere on the garden and will leave my snips int he ground all winter using them as and when. Whatever is left when i need the garden next March will be pulled out and froze and that part of the garden will be fertilised with fresh garden compost rather than the manure i had planned on using.

[Alison]

I lift as required until Christmas then lift, prepare vacuum seal and freeze. Taste just as good cooked from frozen

I only really start eating mine at Christmas so I'd need a huge freezer

[Snadger]

I lift as required until Christmas then lift, prepare vacuum seal and freeze. Taste just as good cooked from frozen

Do you really think so? Carrots from frozen bear no resemblance in taste to carrots freshly dug in my opinion. Potatoes freshly dug are always more tasteful than stored tatties also.

[Greenleaves]

Carrots I agree Snadger, but parsnips seem to fair far better....try it

[Scoot]

Its said snips taste better after a frost? Use your freezer as a frost that way they taste better even if there hasnt been a frost.

That's my method anyway.

[Cadalot]

I leave mine in the ground - couldn't you just lift and move them to a more convenient bit of your plot? I'm shifting the 3 that will be left to flower & set seed.

You will love it, mine grew over six feet high and you get tones of seed off them

[Cadalot]

I only really start eating mine at Christmas so I'd need a huge freezer

Parsnips as with Sprouts and puppies are for all year not just for Christmas