Sprout Torment
I rose early enough today to make a quick detour to the plot to source a traditional array of Christmas dinner delights. The carrots may have been merely bite-sized but the parsnips have got to be world-record challengers. I got so carried away that I dug an entire bed of them. That should make for a fun festive period as no-one else seems to like parsnips. Maybe they’ll change their minds after I’ve made them endure a succession of parsnippy dishes: roast parsnip; parsnip, ginger and garlic soup; curried parsnip soup; parsnip cakes with borlotti bean and garlic sauce – need I go on?
I struggled to carry the freshly dug roots home along with enough spuds to feed 10 but it all proved worthwhile in the end. I was proud as punch to see my hard grown purple sprouts being force fed to the children amongst screams of “yuk” and “don’t make me”. I also spotted a number of semi-gnawed purple orbs being slipped to the dog under the table. I was tempted to follow suit myself actually, I’m not really keen on the purple ones, they are a bit peppery and not sprout-like enough for my liking. I’ll have a field of green ones next year though, so I hope that dog does actually like them.
It was good to note that the mushroom logs that I prepared last Christmas have actually started to show signs of activity. They don’t look exactly appetising but I think the oyster mushroom may be about to blossom.





I had parsnip with my Christmas dinner but didn’t really like them. I made a nice parsnip and potato soup though a few weeks ago.
Sprouts & Parsnips – Yuck, yuck, yuck.
I am not a huge lover of parsnips, but I found a recipe for parmesan roasted parsnips in my delia book. I must say that actually they were rather nice!
Oh I nearly forgot, well done with the mushroom logs. I went to all the bother of the prepping of the logs, and when I took them out of the dark cool period they were indeed looking very promising. Alas….. not a thing since!
I’m coming to yours…I LOVE parsnips! Actually I’m also quite keen on sprouts, sadly I didn’t grow any myself this year but the home grown parsnips have done me proud.
[...] was surprised to find a beautiful chestnut fungus occupying the place where my foetal oyster mushroom had appeared only days before. I obviously got my logs labelled incorrectly and these were actually [...]