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7.3.12

More parsnips!

I have just read on the blog  "From the top of the house" an excellent post about parsnips in France.
Well, we've got them here in Tenerife now - and it's all our fault.
We've been buying our veg at a farmers' market for twelve years, and they know us so well that if we're awol for a couple of weeks they ask where we've been.
A few years ago we gave a packet of parsnip seeds to a carrot lady, and promised to buy any she could grow.  I translated the growing instructions which she decided meant "Treat them like carrots". I told her they were called 'chiriveas' - she'd never heard of them, but agreed to give it her best shot.
The first bunch were enormous and many-legged, but delicious after the frozen ones for which we had to go a British supermarket. The following week she had several bunches and had been forced to hide them under her stall until we arrived, such was the demand from her other English customers.
Could we get more seeds?- Only from England. - Yes please, and any other seeds we cared to bring.
So now, as well as parsnips, she's growing the big hard English turnips that are apparently a necessary ingredient in "scouse", and every time we 'turnip' at the bar (sorry!) with a bagful we sell out in minutes and drink free all night.
And our "Bring from UK" shopping list is headed "Seeds".

2 comments:

  1. Fresh veg is soooo much better tasting than the frozen stuff, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. We are going for world parsnip domination!Panais in French, so it's not like it's totally foreign. I'm just making parsnip and carrot soup to celebrate the whole veggie thing.
    Thanks for kind comments on blog!

    ReplyDelete

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