You may not believe it now, but until I started gardening I was a massively picky eater.  I didn't like leafy greens, garlic, onions (just cut them on the same cutting board with something I liked and I wouldn't eat any of it!), winter squash, summer squash --- the list goes on and on.

Now I find myself excited to try new vegetables and unable to name any I don't like.  (Maybe canned olives?)  The few I no longer grow are simply because they require too much babying and aren't my very favorites.

So I was thrilled when Mom gave me a parsnip to taste test.  I cooked it up with some free range turkey and dumplings today (and onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, and thyme.)  The verdict --- delicious!  Sweet as a carrot!

Information on growing parsnips is a bit scanty.  From what I understand, it needs to be in the ground quite a bit longer than a carrot, so should be planted about 100 days before your first fall frost.  I plan to hunt down some seeds then plant my first parsnips June 30.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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