[peanut]

When would everyone advise digging up my parsnips and taking home the sprouts for Christmas dinner (bearing in mind the weather)?

Should I take them up asap or wait till a couple of days before Christmas?

[DavidT]

I`d dig up some parsnips once they`ve been frosted slightly. Sprouts you can either pick Christmas Eve, or do the modern thing and cut a stem of them to take indoors.

[beansticks]

Harvest them as fresh as possible.

[Elcie]

I am hoping to harvest my brussels on Christmas Eve.  If the weather is looking bad then I will go the day before.

[Babstreefern]

Don't care about the weather- Christmas Eve is when I will be picking my sprouts and digging up the parsnips - however, if this freeze continues, I will be using a pick-ax to harvest the blighers

[Salmo]

If you leave the parsnips until the last minute they may be frozen in and impossible to dig without a pick-axe. Dig them now and heel them back in just shallow so that on Chistmas eve all you have to do is unearth them. It will not really hurt to dig them now and store them somewhere cool for 6 days.

Same applies to leeks.

[peanut]

Thanks guys, once I can get the car out of the road I'll nip down and dig the snips, then heel in.

[Paul Plots]

If you leave the parsnips until the last minute they may be frozen in and impossible to dig without a pick-axe. Dig them now and heel them back in just shallow so that on Chistmas eve all you have to do is unearth them. It will not really hurt to dig them now and store them somewhere cool for 6 days.

Same applies to leeks.

Good advice.... nothing more annoying (well almost nothing) than having to take home huge lumps of frozen soil to defrost before you get at your leeks and parsnips. They may well snap off if they are too solid in the ground.... Fork bounces too! 

[Janeymiddlewife]

Should have dug some last week - not predicted to rise above freezing here for the next 7 days - snow is beautiful, but I've had enough now thanks.... 

[Paul Plots]

When you have a dentist appointment at 8.40 and the ice is too much for cycling (and you don't drive) you have to walk the mile to get there.... so we arrived just a little late. 

When your parents are elderly and (guess what?) the ice is too much for cycling you have to walk there and back to deliver the milk and bread and lend a hand.

When it rains overnight then freezes on top of the (was) snow life is interestingly unpredictable.

When you want to get to the plot just to have a look and tinker it really would be nice if the weather was just a little warmer and drier...

There we go - such is life! 

[barbarella]

Everyone has probably had a good frost by now, but I heard a good tip a few days ago (it might have been Jamie or Hugh) - if you want to dig any parsnips before they have been frosted, put them in a plastic bag and pop them in the freezer for a couple of hours to bring out the sweetness.  Obviously really I suppose

[Paul Plots]

Everyone has probably had a good frost by now, but I heard a good tip a few days ago (it might have been Jamie or Hugh) - if you want to dig any parsnips before they have been frosted, put them in a plastic bag and pop them in the freezer for a couple of hours to bring out the sweetness.  Obviously really I suppose

I suppose artificial frosting would be the same as the real thing?

It is a wonder wholesale food suppliers don't do it....

[peanut]

managed to get down there today and dug up the parsnips.  The ground was remarkably easy to dig and we've got some real beauties.  Sprouts were fresh frozen on the plant, faster than Birds Eye can manage - so we brought them home too.   really looking forward to Christmas dinner now.