We had a visit to the plot this morning. We needed to add some kitchen waste to the compost bins and I ripped up an Amazon delivery box to add too. There was no-one else on site, it wasn't too chilly and no rain, but the ground is still pretty claggy.
Jamie decided it was time to check whether we're going to have parsnips for Christmas dinner.
So, we pulled one up today - looked a good size....
...but it was rotten. Squashy at both ends and where we snapped the end off you can see that the central core is white surrounded with rotted nip :-(
It's not too surprising given the state of the parsnip bed - the hand is pointing at an apparently growing top:
 |
| A sad soggy parsnip bed |
The leafy tops started to die back in September when
I pulled a nice parsnip. Since then, the tops have disappeared completely; a couple have started to show some re-growth, which isn't a good sign. It would seem that we should have pulled them before the tops died back completely - the wet probably seeped down through the top where the leaves were no longer there to protect the root.
So, it's a second year with no home-grown parsnips for our Christmas lunch - doh!
Well we`re not going to have many sprouts. What kind of Christmas dinner has no sprouts? Perhaps it will be roasted pumpkin instead. There`s plenty of that!!!
ReplyDeleteA sad looking Parsnip indeed.The wet weather this year has certainly got a lot to answer for this year. I had a similar problem earlier this year with some of my Swedes. With spuds at over £12's a bag compared with £5's last year, Christmas dinner's looking grim.
ReplyDeleteWe're all going to be missing something from our Christmas dinners then! We just need to remember that we at least managed to grow some food this year - and what a year! As we survived this one we can surely survive anything! :-)
ReplyDeleteBut let's hope it's not such a struggle next year!!