Parsnip Paradise

All around our site, people are pulling their prize parsnips from clamps to take home for their Christmas dinner. Roast parsnips, roast potatoes and brussels sprouts, all from the allotment - gorgeous!

But simply roasting your parsnips is not exactly imaginative. Why not try this favourite in our house, which works just as well with leftover parsnips on Boxing Day...

Ingredients


4 small parsnips, peeled and cut into lengths (or larger ones with the woody core cut out)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
Seasonings
1 bag or two good handfuls of fresh allotment rocket (grow it in a cold frame, it's wonderful in winter)
2 dessert pears sliced into wedges with the skin still on
A handful of hazel or pecan nuts, lightly toasted


Dressing

5-1/2 oz. Gorgonzola or other strong blue cheese
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
150 ml olive oil

Put parsnips and oil in a roasting pan, pour honey over and season to taste. Roast until golden (about 20-25 minutes) and allow to cool.

While that's going on, mash the Gorgonzola in a bowl. Stir in the vinegar and whisk in the olive oil until slightly textured.

Put the rocket on plates and top with the pears and parsnips arranged in alternate slices to make a fan shape, lightly chop nuts and sprinkle over, followed by dressing.


I promise you, it's delicious.

Labels: allotment-recipes, christmas-allotment, winter-allotment

What not to get me (or any allotment holder) for Christmas

I suspect that a lot of allotmenteers, like me, cringe a bit as Christmas comes around. We know we’re going to get loads of totally useless and inappropriate stuff from our well-meaning friends and family and then we’re going to have to cart it all down to the allotment and store it in the back of the shed, where the accumulated years of Christmas presents that we didn’t want and won’t use soon threaten to take over all the space.

I have weird little devices that never worked but were supposed to remove perennial weeds easily and permanently. I have broken trowels and forks with tines that are too close together, or too short, or both, I even have a fork with sloping shoulders - why? There are packets of seeds that I never even managed to give away because they were either naff or not suitable for our local terrain. And there are even a few gift vouchers from garden stores and catalogues which - try as I might - I never managed to find a single thing that I wanted to buy from. I do wish that those lovely people who buy this rubbish for me would either ask me what I want, or look at the catalogues and shops I do buy from, and get me a gift token from there!

What I'd really like, but I'm not going to get, is one of these - shredder - isn't that gorgeous? The thing is, much as I want a shredder of my own, I can actually use one that belongs to a neighbour, for a tiny fee, and that makes me feel that buying my own piece of kit would be a wild extravagance. Just for once though, I'd like to run wild.

Labels: allotment-equipment, allotment-gifts, christmas-allotment