![]() Pressure canning is another excellent storage method. Or, parboil washed and peeled half-inch “coins” for three minutes in boiling water, submerge them in an ice bath to cool, dry them thoroughly, and store them in zippered plastic bags in the freezer for up to nine months. You can also store unwashed whole roots with one-inch stems attached in the vegetable bin of the refrigerator for up to two weeks. They should last this way for up to six months. If you find yourself with a bountiful harvest, you’re bound to need to store at least a portion of it at some point.Ĭut the green tops off and store the unwashed roots in a container filled with moist sand and covered with a loose-fitting lid. When you harvest more than you need at the moment, you’ll have to store the excess. However, don’t wait too long, because once the foliage grows, you’ll find the roots have turned woody, stringy, and bland. It’s well worth the wait, as wintered-over crops are the sweetest. You can also leave all or a portion of your crop in the ground until the following spring, provided you collect all remaining roots before new growth appears. Just remember to mark the patch so you can find and dig them even after the greens have wilted, withered, and vanished. In addition to opting to enjoy a complete fall harvest, you can allow some or all of your parsnips to remain in the ground right through the winter, and lift them as needed on days when the ground isn’t frozen solid. One of the best features of root vegetables is that they can be gathered and stored for use through the winter, a time when fresh vegetables were once hard to come by. You can collect an entire crop, but there are other options available to you as well. Brush off any loose soil.Ĭut the foliage off at a point about one inch above the top of the vegetable. Use the fork to carefully unearth one or several roots. Head out with a clean utility knife and either a handheld or long-handled garden fork. On wet days, your shoes are more likely to spread plant pathogens around the garden, and the moisture may actually cause harvested crops to begin to decay prematurely. That being said, take care, and dig crops on a dry day. The condition contracted is called phytophotodermatitis, and it has to do with a combination of sap, moisture, and sunlight that cause blistering, burning, and/or itching of the skin in sensitive people. ![]() Be sure to wear gardening gloves, as some folks may react to contact with parsnip foliage, although the wild parsnip is generally the culprit, as opposed to cultivated varieties.
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