Parsnips are a semi-sweet root vegetable with a light, but sharp flavor. They’re a spring or fall crop and are lovely eaten as a side dish or on their own. Parsnips have earned a special place in our hearts as they are another root vegetable that can easily be turned into fries.
Parsnip Details
- Family: Apiaceae
- Growing Season: Spring or Fall depending on your zone
- Growing Zones: 3 through 10
- Spacing: 12 inches (30 cm) apart
- Seed to Harvest time: 105 Days
- Indoor Starting: Not recommended
- Earliest Planting: As soon as ground can be worked
- Watering: Water when soil is dry. Do not over water. Parsnips require roughly 1 inch of water per week. Watering too frequently will limit root growth.
- Sunlight Requirements: Full sun to partial shade
- Planting: Sow seeds 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) deep. When the root begins to show above the soil, mound dirt keep the tops from greening.
- Weeding: Weed daily where possible. Leaving larger weeds may cause deformed root growth.
- Harvesting: Harvest parsnips by gripping the tops firmly and pulling straight up. If you have trouble freeing them use a long garden trowel or a hori hori to lightly dig around the root.
- Known Pests: Carrot weevils, remove manually if seen. Keep carrots separated from parsnips to prevent cross-contamination between plots. Rotate crops to prevent weevil hatches from season to season. Leafhopper, use sticky traps or introduce predatory insect species where permissible.
More About Parsnips
Parsnips exist somewhere between the space of a carrot and a potato. While not related to potatoes, parsnips do have a starchy like texture when roasted or fried. They are too fibrous to make a fluffy mash, but they can easily turn into parsnip fries.
Like most root vegetables, parsnips keep quite well. They’re not super hard to grow and they don’t have too many pest problems.
Parsnip Tasting and Food Notes
Parsnips taste like a sweet carrot with a sharper high note. They are more distinct and pronounced than other root vegetables, but still not so overpowering as to color a dish all on their own. Parsnips are weird in that they take to savory pairings more easily than sweet ones, despite their already semi-sweet nature. Parsnips are at home in butter as much as they are fried and in a salad.
Parsnips can be eaten raw, but they have a different flavor profile as opposed to when they are cooked. Raw they have a subtle nuttiness to them and a hint of licorice flavor. While this certainly is different, it is subdued greatly when cooked leaving their sweeter taste behind.
The early parsnips are planted the sweeter their overall flavor will be. As you pick parsnips throughout the year you may notice that they becomes less and less sweet, and this all has to do with the growing temperature of the plant.
Should I Grow Parsnips In My Garden?
If you’re looking for a new root vegetable to try, parsnips are a great place to start. While they are easy to grow and have some great uses in the kitchen, they should be avoided if you’ve had repeat trouble with carrot weevils which will prey on any plant in the Apiaceae family. Give Parsnips a try if you’ve got the space and are free of pests, they’re a tasty and surprisingly unique vegetable to add to your homestead table.