Last of the Parsnips

Pulled up the last of the Parsnip Gladiator F1 today, took some hard work to dig these things up as they have really grown well and deep this year. We only really wanted enough to make some Parsnip wine, but we have had so many this year it’s been amazing.

The butternut squash in the photo’s where a parsnip swap with another allotment grower, so I can’t claim these as my own.

Lifted 4 almost perfect specimens, 2.41 kg for just these 4 alone.

All in all, I gathered in about 5.5kg of Parsnip Gladiator F1 this trip to the allotment, so in total we managed to grow about 15kg of parsnips this season.

Supermarket price (as of 12th Jan 21) is around £0.90/kg, so we grew £13.50 worth of these root veg, less the price of the seed at £0.60 for 75 seed, so £12.90 net. Not bad. Nearly paid for last years Allotment fees in just these. If we add in the 3 butternut squashes, at £1.50/kg. Which we swapped 2kg worth, that is plus £3.00. So lets say £15.90 net.

Christmas Veg Harvest 2020

Well it’s Xmas Eve 2020, so off to the allotment to get our veg for dinner tomorrow. A wet and cold day but it’s good to get outside with Covid lockdown still going on.

Picked the Cabbage (Kilaton F1) that I had set aside for the big day, and it proved to be a very good one, really tight head of cabbage. Two stalks of Brussels Sprouts (‘Bright’ F1 Hybrid), the sprouts are still quite small but there are plenty there for dinner or two. One full head of the Kale Borecole Vates Blue Curled. Some more Parsnip Gladiator F1 to roast.

From the freezer we will be also cooking some Cobra green beans that with grew earlier in the season. Home made Red Currant jelly and a Black Currant wine from fruit we also grew this year.

So on the dinner table tomorrow will be SEVEN items that we grew and/or made ourselves.

1st Big Parsnip Harvest

Well we have had a few cold spells, so time to lift a row of the Parsnip Gladiator F1. Some of which will be turned into Parsnip wine, one for Sunday lunch, and the rest blanched and put in the freezer for later.

A perfect Parsnip

The good lady wife had to dig some deep holes to get these whoppers out of the ground and lifted some perfect parsnips. Most of them where pretty straight specimens, but of course when growing anything you get some that grow a little rude.

Meet Mr and Mrs Parsnip.

In total for just a single row, 7.5kg of Parsnip Gladiator F1 came out of the ground today, not a bad haul.

7.5kg of Parsnip Gladiator F1.

Took all these home and then spent the afternoon preparing them all for the freezer, 4kg of the wonky ones where cut up for the wine, and we saved all the tops and peelings as well, so zero waste for us. The rest where all cut, blanched and bagged and put into the freezer.

We had one with our Sunday lunch. and again lovely and tender, even though they are so big, and for someone that does not like parsnips these are very nice indeed.

Veg Harvest for Sunday Roast and a gift from Norman.

A lovely sunny day and off to the Allotment to get some veggies for today’s dinner. A nice tight Cabbage (Kilaton F1), some Kale Borecole Vates Blue Curled and we also decided to dig up another Parsnip Gladiator F1.

The Parsnip took some getting out, nice deep root on it, that single parsnip is 750g on it’s own and there are plenty more still to lift. Not bad for a pack of 75 seeds that cost just £0.60

The Aquadulce Claudia Broad Beans are doing great, and by the looks of it only a couple of seeds did not germinate. We planted extra seeds between the 3 rows, just 2 or three, so I have moved one of the extra seedlings into the gap in the row.

The Brussels Sprout ‘Bright’ F1 are doing great still, looks as if we will get some of these for our Xmas dinner this year.

Still nothing showing in the Garlic bed as yet, the WWW says 4-8 weeks before germination sighs appear so still early days yet. Fingers crossed all is well with them, as garlic is not cheap to buy from the garden centres. The 4 cloves of Elephant garlic set us back £5.98.

Was hoping to start tiding up the fruit today, but the raspberry ‘All Gold’ canes still have lots of leaves on them still, some are even still fruiting, so we will have to wait a little longer before moving them to their new homes inside the fruit cage. The Jostaberry plants also need a good pruning this year as they are now getting pretty large but it looks like we will have to do that in a few weeks time as well.

While we where there, our allotment neighbour Norman, was having an allotment tidy as well, and asked if we wanted a couple of raised beds he no longer needed, this offer was kindly accepted. So now we have added these to the fruit side of the Allotment, in one of the few spots we had left that could be used. The current plan is to used these for the Uchiki Kuri Squash next April allowing them to sprawl over the fruit side of the plot.