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My next door neighbour knocked on the door at the weekend with a bag of pears for us. He said his tree had only produced one single pear last year, but he's got a bumper crop this year and wondered if we'd like some. Yes please! There was just under four pounds in the bag, so a good amount for us to go at. I'm looking for recipes now, I quite fancy having a go at a pear cake and a pear tart.
We managed to get all the containers in the garden sorted out on Sunday. The tender plants were moved in to the greenhouse for a bit of protection over winter and the annuals were added to the compost bin. The fragile pots have been stored away safely. It was all done in the nick of time as we had our first frost of the year that night, winter is on the way.
Don't forget, if you haven't yet entered my giveaway, you've got until twelve noon on Sunday the 10th of November 2013 to do so. Just leave a comment on The Allotment Planner post.
Those look like perfect parsnips, I'm very impressed. I hope the taste is good.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they'll be delicious, though I probably should have waited to dig them up until after Sunday night's frost as they're supposed to be even better then.
DeleteThose parsnips look great!! Did you do anything different with them this year that caused them to turn out so much better?
ReplyDeleteI always dig a trench and fill it with compost before sowing my parsnip seed to allow the roots an easy run as my soil is quite heavy and littered with stones. It looks like it's worked out much better this year than it's done in previous years.
DeleteI'll make sure to keep that in mind before I have my first go at planting parsnips next season, thanks :)
DeleteYou may not need to do that in your soil, and it hasn't worked for me in previous years so I think it's a bit of a lottery anyway. Good luck with yours.
DeleteFab looking parsnips and how lovely to get free pears. We found 1 pear when we picked the apples next door so maybe we (they) will get more next year :-)
ReplyDeleteFruit sometimes misses a year then crops heavily the following year, so you may be lucky. I don't often buy pears so it's nice to have some.
DeleteRoasted parsnips drizzled with honey, spicy parsnip soup mmmm...parsnips are one of my very favourite veggies and I could eat a plate of them all on their own xxx
ReplyDeleteI'm exactly the same, but so is my daughter so we end up fighting over them. I'm looking forward to tea tonight.
DeleteThose parsnips look good. I don't grow them as I always get given some by a plot neighbour, but really must try one year.
ReplyDeleteLucky you with the pears. Well done in sorting out your pots in the nick of time.
I've found parsnips quite tricky, even getting them to germinate, but they're definitely worth the trouble. My neighbours have been more than generous with the pears. It was more luck than planning that my pots got sorted out before the frost came.
DeleteI've never been able to get parsnip seed to germinate, so I am very very impressed by yours! They look fab. I love roast parsnips alone or roasted with other veg. Yummy! If they taste half as good as they look they will be amazing. xx
ReplyDeleteParsnips can be tricky things to grow. They're one of my favourite veg though so I do persevere, plus, my daughter absolutely loves them too.
DeleteExcellent result on the parsnip front!
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased with them so far, I hope the rest are as good.
DeleteVery fine produce. We forgot to plant parsnips this year. I love them roasted.
ReplyDeleteLove from Mum
xx
What a shame you forgot to plant some, I look forward to them every year.
DeleteHmmmm! I'm jealous of those straight parsnips. Maybe my next lot will be that good. Re the pears: you ought to try my recipe for pickled pears (which I wrote about a month or so ago).
ReplyDeleteYou never know what's going on under the ground, it's always a lottery when you pull them up. I remember reading your post about the pickled pears, I shall look it up.
DeleteLovely parsnips, they're on my list of things to try next year. I've never grown them before, but I do love them, so it would be nice to have some. Do you recall what variety yours are?
ReplyDeleteThese parsnips are Tender and True. I've ordered the same variety for next year purely by chance. I picked them from the Kings Seed catalogue because it said they're the Grower's Choice. They're the best I've ever grown so far, I just hope they grow a bit now.
DeleteI have never planted parsnip. It's not easy for me to find vegetable seeds from sub tropics area. I love to try planting new varieties, but here I only find a limited seeds varieties
ReplyDeleteThere's so many things grown worldwide that I don't think we'll ever run out of new things to try, it's just a shame that the seed isn't so widely available.
DeleteThose parsnips look good enough to enter in a show Jo but I imagine that there's no evidence of them left now :) Hope that they were tasty. We woke up to our first frost here too on Monday.
ReplyDeleteWe ate them last night and they were delicious. I wonder what the next ones will taste like now that we've had a frost.
DeleteOh well done Jo! The parsnips look brilliant!
ReplyDeleteThank you. They were delicious too. I just hope the next ones are a little bit bigger.
DeleteGreat looking parsnips..we usually grow them but didn't this year.. so wish we had after looking at yours.. yummy roast parsnips :o)
ReplyDeleteI always regret not sowing something when I see the harvests popping up on blogs. You'll have to sow double next year to make up for missing a year.
DeleteYour parsnips look wonderful; they're one of my favourite veg but I don't have the room for them in the veg patch garden. Must taste so much sweeter for having grown them yourself!
ReplyDeleteIt's such a shame that you don't have room to grow your own parsnips, though they can be a bit temperamental so at least you don't have the stress. I have to admit that I'm rather pleased with these specimens.
DeleteI'm impressed with your parsnips. They are a crop I haven't tried growing yet, mainly because they have such a long growing season but also because I've read about them being difficult to grow. You should be rightly chuffed.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I've impressed myself this year. I just hope the rest are as good. They can be quite temperamental, even getting them to germinate can be a challenge some years.
DeleteThey are pretty fine looking parsnips, I love them roasted with chili's or chips! My parsnips seem to have disappeared!xxxx
ReplyDeleteOh no, do try digging for them though, you never know, they might be hiding. I love them roasted too.
DeleteWe're still enjoying our parsnips. They're not as sound as yours, but big and I can trim them. I think they're one of my favourite vegetables roasted alongside potatoes. We've also got some good sized leeks to enjoy in the next few days.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping that my parsnips will grow a bit before I dig up any more. They're one of my favourite vegetables too. I never got my leeks in the ground this year so I'm without, I'll definitely have to make more of an effort next year as I know we'll miss them.
DeleteFine looking parsnips! We had a lot of pears this year, too. I posted a pear tart recipe on my blog last Wednesday that you might want to try.
ReplyDeleteHappy Gardening!
Lea
It must have been a good year for pears. I've looked up the pear tart recipe, it looks scrumptious.
DeleteThose parsnips look great...but to be honest if they had been knobbly and short I still would have been jealous as I didn't have a single one germinate!! Fingers crossed for next year!!
ReplyDeleteI've managed with knobbly short ones in the past and they taste just as good. What a shame you didn't get any to germinate, better luck next year.
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