THE LOWLY GARDEN PARSNIP: FIT FARE FOR A KING

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" A rose may always be a rose." says Jack Roland Coggins, "but the common garden parsnip—once you get to know it—is actually in disguise."

"Parsnips ... ugh!"

There's something about the very word "parsnip" that can shrivel the taste buds of a generation raised on TV dinners. And I'll admit that the way in which this root vegetable is traditionally served (boiled and buttered) seems to please more adult than juvenile palates.

But parsnips can be so much more! Soups and stews, for instance. French fries. Pancakes. Pies. Even flaming desserts! As I'll prove before this article is finished.

BUT FIRST, LET'S GROW SOME PARSNIPS

Parsnips are a "full season" crop (the roots take about 130 days to reach full maturity) and do best when planted sometime between early spring and early summer. I like to put mine in my garden's border rows ... where they're out of the way as my family harvests faster-growing produce in the rest of the vegetable patch and sows second crops in its place.

Sprinkle your parsnip seeds out very thinly and about one-half inch deep in rows spaced two feet apart. Then, when the plants are three inches tall, thin them until they stand five inches from each other in the rows. (These are average "common sense" distances that should guarantee success for almost any first-time parsnip grower. I have, however, grown superior parsnips spaced only three inches apart in rows separated by just eighteen inches.)

The best parsnips are smooth-skinned and tender, and have a sweet flavor. And the keys to making yours grow up that way are [1] rich soil, and [2] ample and consistent moisture.

Parsnips require plenty of moisture all the time and the surest way to turn your roots into a woody, fibrous, malformed crop is by allowing the earth around them to become dry for even short periods of time.

But then, of course, there's no real need for your parsnip patch to dry out. Not when it's so easy to keep it consistently moist with a thick layer of leaves, weeds, grass cuttings, straw, hay, or other organic mulch. Even a heavy carpet of newspapers or magazines weighted down between the rows with stones will do the trick.

HOW TO HARVEST AND STORE PARSNIPS

Your roots may be added to soups and stews as soon as they attain a reasonable size. Freezing, however, greatly improves both the flavor and texture of the vegetable and brings out its sweetness and aromatic characteristic.

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