I think parsnips are kind of an acquired taste. The ones you get in most supermarkets have not been aged proberly. Pardoxically parsnips are best when not too fresh. They sweeten if left to age a bit.

Well, basically, they have a mild carrot flavor, and are sort of halfway between a carrot and a white potato in starch level. You can use them any way you would carrots, roasted, boiled, etc., and also pretty much the way you would use a white potato, boiled and mashed, fried, etc.

They definitely do taste sweeter after a winter in cold ground, and are at their absolutely peak just when the soil thaws in the spring, but they're fine this time of year as well.

Everyone isn't going to like all of the same foods, obviously, so they may just not be for you, but you should give them a chance at least.

Try shredding them finely, and making parsnip/potato cakes with about half shredded parsnip, half shredded white potato, a little finely minced onion, some salt and pepper, and perhaps a beaten egg and little flour to hold it together, and fry these in vegetable oil until crispy and brown on both sides.

That's the thing, denninmi....I tried them raw and cooked. I'm thinking that my horrible experience has something to do with the time of year and storage of this veg. My samples were extremely bitter bitter bitter, and had a very fibrous and corky texture.

I can't wrap my mind around parsnips and the Southern States. I've always thought of them as cool weather crops. In England they're a staple and find their way around roasts. I'm wondering the source for the parsnips you've cooked?

When I plant them, I seldom harvest them until late, late winter or very early spring, after they've had a chance to go through cold in the ground, and sweeten.

Although they're always hard to peel and slice, they should never be fibrous or corky. Here in the States, in my area, you seldom even see them in stores anymore and when you do they're very seasonal (meaning I doubt they spent much time in cold storage) and often stuck with the gourmet produce. rofl! My g'grandparents are prolly rolling in their graves thinking anyone would consider a parsnip a gourmet veggie. They were staple foods to old timers to stretch their budgets, just like turnips.

I sometimes throw them into pasties, instead of turnips. If you haven't eaten pasties, google it. It is a wonderful little pie hailing from Wales or the Cornwall region of England. If you Google it, be sure to put Welsh or Cornish in front of the word pasties, or God knows what you'll bring up on your search. LOL.

Oh rhizo - heaven only knows where a parsnip came from in August in Alabama. They also lose their flavour after they have been washed, as do any supermarket veg. You really have to give them a second chance with parsnips cultivated in a cool climate and harvested after at least one frost. They are fantastic roasted - a bit like sweet potatoes - sweet and caramelly. Anything you can do with a potato you can do with a parsnip. They are an essential part of our Christmas dinner.

And calliope, if you have found them hard to peel and slice then they are really not good parsnips. They should be no more difficult than a carrot or a potato. There should be absolutely no fibre or corkiness and the skin should be smooth and tender.

Parsnips shouldn't be bitter, or corky or woody. I'd say yes, you just got some bad ones, probably held way too long or in improper conditions. And, I do suspect the time of year is a lot of it. They're really considered a "winter" vegetable, so they probably don't sell well this time of year, and maybe just sat way too long in the produce aisle at the supermarket.

Give them a chance again sometime between December and early March and see what you think. Try to get some really fresh local ones if possible.

I like to slice them into medallions and just fry them in a very small amount of butter or oil, slowly on both sides, until really brown and crispy, and then eat them dipped in a bit of ranch dressing.

Last fall I put some horse manure on my MIL's garden. I had forgotten about the parsnips so she couldnt eat them. They were little things anyway, she told me to feed them to the deer. LOL. I left them in the ground.

Well this spring I went and dug some up for her and they were a lot bigger. She was truely happy that they were bigger, so she par=boiled them and then fried them in butter. I thought that they were pretty good.

Heaven only knows where those parsnips came from, and how long they'd been stored.

Okay, I'll give them another try this fall. Silly me for not thinking of calling my OTHER sister-in-law, who's British, and probably knows better than to buy them in August, in Alabama.

Thanks, everybody.

Parsnips aren't in season in August, not in either hemisphere.

I peel them with a carrot peeler, cut them in half lengthwise and bake them, covered, with a bit of butter. Yum.

They can be added to stews and pot roast.

Good for you, rhizo, for trying something new. Too bad you got a bad batch of parsnips.

They have to have had freezes, rhizo, to be good. You can see why Northerners are fond of them, they are the one and only veggie that peaks in flavor in February. IMHO, stewed with meats they are the best vegetable.

odds are a grocery store parsnip is from CA, not known for tasty ones. And how one could get a good parsnip in summer in the northern hemisphere is not concievable....

I roast them. I cut up carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, and onions, mix them all together with a bit of olive oil, put them in foil, sprinkle with chopped garlic and whatever herbs you like (I do rosemary, tiny bit of thyme, some tarragon) and loosely wrap and put in a hot oven - 400. And start checking them after 20 minutes for "done". They all get mellow, golden brown. OMG - now I am hungry... Parsnips are best roasted I think.

I used to live in New England, now in middle GA...

You didn't get good parsnips. They should be sweet and sort of between a carrot and turnip. Even my dogs love them raw. Now I'm wondering if I made a mistake picking them up in summer but I thought they were shipped from Chile.

rhizo, I am so glad you started this thread. I saw some parsnips seed a couple weeks ago and wondered if it might be a good thing to try in the winter garden. I, like you, have never eaten them, or even seen them, for that matter. Do you folks think that lows in the teens for a few weeks in winter would be enough to grow good ones?

Me too. I won't eat parsnips from the store very often, but home grown, late fall after a frost or two...yuh-um.

Dan

donnabaskets: those temps will be fine. Get them going soon as you can though, like all winter veg they like to get going when it's still warmish.
Be warned, parsnips are one of the fussier plants to germinate; the seed must be fresh and they can take a few weeks to sprout. I think of them as extra-fussy carrots. Old carpet or underfelt's great to keep the seed damp for the eons it takes to germinate.

donnabaskets - obvously I am not familiar with your growing conditions but I am not sure sowing parsnips now will be successful if you are hoping to eat them this winter. They are sown very early in the year in my climate and take many months to reach a decent size for eating. Although they are eaten in the winter they have been growing since the previous spring. e.g. sow in February and eat in November. Maybe they grow faster in NZ or they eat them much smaller but certainly in the UK they take a VERY long time to mature.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing parsnips

I'm with flora. Doubt you'll get a crop over the winter. Not sure how good they will taste in early summer either, as they like a nip of frost to move the sugars to make taste. No harm in trying.

Dan

It's true-planting early spring's by far the best.
I shoulda said, it's miserable here till November, so aside from the 'snips getting a bit 'hairy', I can get away with an autumn planting.

I surely thank you all for your comments. I'll erase the memory of that stingy, bitter parsnip experience from my brain cells and look for this veggie during the winter months.

I have visions of using it with roasts, soups, and oven roasted veggie dishes.

Honestly, it's hard for me to imagine growing a good parsnip in the deep South. I used to grow them in Maine, starting from seed in May and harvesting the following March, just after the ground thawed. One of my very favorite vegetables, sweet, forward, and earthy. Edible after the first hard frost, but best by far after sitting in the ground through a long, cold winter.

They're biennial, by the way, and I used to reserve a few of the smaller roots from the March harvest to replant elsewhere in the garden to regrow for seed.

Regards,

Jeff

I am laughing, because I also dig mine in winter just like jserena said and would inevitably miss some or just leave them because I had all I wanted. It freaks the guy out who comes to turn the soil over with his big tractor and he always wonders if he destroyed something he shouldn't.

Hmmmn. This is great information, folks. After reading this thread, I went searching for info on growing parsnips in my books/journals on growing veggies in the south. Zip. Nada. Not one bit. This may all explain why. Fresh seed, huh? Maybe next year. Like someone said, can't hurt to try!

donna, does that mean that you will be our Southern guinea pig? Wait, that didn't sound right.....our great Southern Experimenter person?

Next year. (The seeds I saw were a hundred miles away.) You have my word. It's the least I could do for all the great info you've given me over the years, rhizo.

I love experiments! :)