July 15, 2020 - Garden and Allotment Tips and Advice

Freezing Parsnips – How to guide

February 19, 2024July 15, 2020 by Gardening With Ben

Freezing Parsnips – How to guide

Welcome to the world of preserving the earthy sweetness of parsnips through freezing! If you’ve found yourself with an abundance of these delightful root vegetables and want to extend their freshness, you’re in the right place. In this comprehensive guide on freezing parsnips, we’ll walk you through the simple steps to ensure that you can enjoy the flavors of these winter treasures throughout the year.

Parsnips, with their sweet and nutty taste, are not only delicious when fresh but can also be a fantastic addition to your meals when preserved properly. Whether you’ve harvested a bumper crop from your garden or stumbled upon a great deal at the market, freezing parsnips is a convenient way to keep them at your culinary disposal whenever the craving strikes.

Join us as we delve into the art of freezing parsnips, exploring the best practices, essential tips, and creative ways to incorporate these frozen gems into your favorite dishes. Let’s embark on a journey to preserve the goodness of parsnips, ensuring you have a steady supply of these versatile roots whenever you need them.

Have you grown too many parsnips to store in the pantry? Not got enough room to store them? Well rather than letting the parsnips rot and go off you could start by freezing them. Freezing parsnips is is quick simple and easy to do. Plus you won’t be wasting vegetables especially if you have grown them yourself.

If you freeze your parsnips you can then end up storing them for months as they will not go off in the freezer. Give the parsnips a good scrub down, peel them then finally blanch them before you decide to put them in the freezer.

Do you want to learn how to grow parsnips? Find out here.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-

Click to see book on Amazon

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

How to wash, blanch and freeze parsnips.

Here you can a find a step by step plan of washing, blanching and freezing your parsnips:-

Place your parsnips in a bowl of water for one hour to soak. This will help remove any muck on the parsnips.
Wash your parsnips under a cold tap, to get all the rest of the dirt off scrub them with a nailbrush. This will get into all the groves of the parsnip and get the dirt out. Don’t use a nail brush you have used on yourself.
Use a peeler rather than a knife to peel the parsnips as you don’t want to end up cutting chunks out of them. A peeler will just take the skin off them
Either using vegetable dicer or a knife chop the parsnip into 2-3cm chunks.

You can follow the next steps on how to blanch the parsnips ready for freezing them.

Boil a pan of water on the oven.
Once the water is boiling you can gently place in your parsnip cubes.
Your parsnips will take around 2-3 minutes to blanch if you have cut them to 2-3cm.
Place the parsnip cubes straight into a bowl of ice-cold water – add a few ice cubes to the water to get it colder.
This will stop the parsnips from cooking straight away.
You can now place your parsnip cubes on a clean towel or kitchen roll and pat them down, leave until they have dried out
To freeze the parsnips put them in a vacuum-sealed food bag – write the date on the bag with a sharpie so you know when you put them in the freezer. These will last around 13 months.
If you put them straight into the freezer bag they will all freeze as a clump. If you want to freeze them individually put some greaseproof paper on a baking tray and lay them on that then freeze.
Once they have frozen on the baking tray you can put the pieces in the bag and seal.
When you are ready to use the parsnips you can get the bag out of the freezer and let it just defrost at room temperature.

Conclusion

As we conclude this guide on freezing parsnips, we hope you’ve gained valuable insights into preserving the rich flavors of this versatile root vegetable. Freezing parsnips is not just a practical way to prevent waste; it’s a culinary investment that allows you to enjoy the delightful taste of parsnips in a myriad of dishes throughout the year.

By following the steps outlined in this guide, you’ve learned how to maintain the quality, texture, and nutritional benefits of parsnips, ensuring they remain a delicious addition to your meals even after being frozen. Whether you choose to add them to soups, stews, roasts, or side dishes, your frozen parsnips will bring a touch of earthy sweetness to your culinary creations.

So, the next time you find yourself with an abundance of parsnips, don’t hesitate to freeze them and savor the taste of this winter gem whenever your taste buds desire. Happy freezing, and may your future meals be filled with the wholesome goodness of preserved parsnips!

You can find more tips and advice here for fruit and vegetables.

Growing Parsnips – Hints and tips

February 19, 2024July 15, 2020 by Gardening With Ben

Growing Parsnips

Parsnips are fantastic to grow in the garden. You can plant them and basically leave them until you are ready to eat them. You don’t even need to harvest them all at once you can just harvest them as and when you actually need them just leave them in the ground until you are actually ready. Here we will be sharing hints and tips on growing parsnips for the best harvests and great produce. You can sow parsnips in spring and be eating the lovely roasted parsnips come autumn with your Sunday dinner.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

When to sow and harvest parsnips.

Here you can find out when the best time of the year is to sow and harvest.

Sow	February to May
Harvest	September to March

** Note this are UK timings – everything is obviously based on the weather**

Parsnip Varieties

When choosing parsnip varieties to grow it is important that you choose ones that are resistant to Canker. The varieties that we recommend growing are:-

Ruby
Marian
Angela

Click to find parsnip seeds for sale

Choosing the best spot for growing parsnips

When choosing the best spot for growing parsnips you need to find a sunny spot for them to grow. They like soil that has previously been improved with well rotted manure. If you are growing them for shows you will want to choose perfect soil but we are looking at growing parsnips for home use. Before sowing your parsnip seeds make sure that you have raked over the soil, removed any stones and added general fertilizer the week before for best outcomes.

Sowing and planting Parsnips

When you sow parsnips seeds you have to be patiant as they can take a long time to germinate. When choosing the variety of parsnip choose a resistant variety of parsnip so that you don’t get canker. Parsnip seeds do not store well at all so you need to get a fresh batch every year. Don’t save the previous years seeds.

Parsnip seeds can be sown from late winter but it is always best waiting till the weather warms up and the soil is warmer. This will help with germination from the plants.

To sow parsnip seeds make a row with the edge of a dibber making it around 1cm deep. If the soil is dry give it a sprinkle of water to wet it slightly. Sow around 4 seeds every 20cms in the prepared row. Then cover the seeds with a fine layer of soil. The seeds are not the easiest to handle so it is probably better an adult does this.

Looking after Parsnip Plants

When your parsnip seeds start to grow you now need to decide which ones are growing the best out of the four seeds. Pull three out and leave the strongest one to carry on growing.

To get the best parsnips keep them weed free they do not like competeing against the weeds for the nutrients in the soil.

Parsnips do not need watering often or very little. Only water them when they start to wilt. You can just leave them to the rain to water. Which in the UK you will be fine for rain.

Harvesting Parsnips

When harvesting parsnips they are best pulled after the first frost as this turns the starch into sugars making them taste a lot better. However you can pull them from summer as baby vegetables. You can pull parsnips out of the ground as and when you actually need them

Parsnip Pests and Diseases

As with any fruit or vegetable you get pests and diseases that affect produce. Here you can see what affects parsnips.

Carrot Fly:- these can affect parsnips as well as carrots. Once the plants get attacked there is no stopping them. You need to be careful you don’t clump plants together too much or damage the plants when thinning them out as this will attract them. You can also build a barrier around the plants 2ft high using horticultural fleece.

Canker:- This can cause rot at the top of the parsnip. It will usually look brown/orange or purple. This can be caused through drought. The way to prevent this is to use a variety that is resistant to it.

Purchase Parsnip Seeds

You can purchase parsnip seeds from our Amazon link below.

Click to find Parsnip Seeds For Sale

You can find out more information on growing fruit and vegetables here

Dwarf French Beans – How to grow

February 19, 2024July 15, 2020 by Gardening With Ben

Dwarf French Beans

Dwarf French beans are excellent to grow on a garden or allotment as they don’t take up a lot of space and they don’t require too much attention. French Beans are a lot less productive than there relation to the runner bean. But you certainly will get a great crop from them.

Dwarf French Beans will not have the problem that runner beans have with many of the pods not setting. Dwarf French Beans will only grow to a height of around 50cm so they do not need a massive structure making like you would for runner beans and normal French beans.

French Beans can come in many colours not just green but yellow and even purple.

Here in this article we will explain how to grow Dwarf French Beans.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

When to Sow Dwarf French Beans

Here you can find the months that you can plant them in the garden.

Sow	April to July
Plant	June to July
Harvest	June to October

**This is only a guide for the UK obviously it all depends on the weather**

Varieties of Dwarf French Bean

There are a few varieties of French bean available on the market to buy. These are some of our recommendations:-

Annebel
Delinel
Golden Teepee
Purple Teepee
Kenyan Bean AGM

Click to find Dwarf French Beans For Sale

Choosing the best soil

When growing Dwarf French Beans you obviously need to plant them in the best position to get the best crops and prod cue from the plants. These need to be planted in a warm sunny spot where the soil is fertile and holds onto the moisture. You can improve the soil by adding in some well-rotted manure and compost a few months before.

How to sow Dwarf French Beans

Sowing these beans is easy we will go through all the things you need to do from sowing, planting and harvesting dwarf French beans.

When sowing the beans the best option is to sow them in pots first as they are extremely slow to grow giving them more chance of being attacked by slugs and snails. Either get a seed tray and distribute them on a layer of compost evenly then covered with another layer of compost or you can sow beans per plant pot (small pot will do)

Planting Dwarf French Beans

When your Beans have reached around 10cm tall they are ready to plant outside in the ground or in troughs. When planting them out in the ground leave around 20cm between each plant so that it makes it easier to weed them. Always save a few plants just in case any get eaten or do not take.

Either plant the French beans in single rows or double rows. Fasten netting behind the beans so that you can fasten them to it as they grow taller. The weight of the beans may topple the plants over and snap them and you would not want to lose all your produce.

Looking after your Plants

beans do not need much looking after. Make sure that the plants are kept weed-free when growing. If it is cold you can use fleece to cover the plants to protect them against frost.

When the plants are small and still developing they can get attacked by birds and slugs. Keep the plants protected from birds by either using netting or using pop bottles to cover them until they are bigger.

Mulch around the plants to keep the plants moist as this will help them grow and stop them drying out as fast.

Harvesting Dwarf French Beans

When harvesting Beans, it’s better to keep picking them often so that it encourages more harvesting. Pick the beans when they are large enough do not leave them on the plant too long as they will miss their peak tastiness.

How to store Dwarf French Beans

To store the beans you can freeze them and you can also dry out the pods. To dry out the pods you need to wait until the pods start to die back on the plant. Pick the pods and store them in a dry room. You can then shell the beans and store the beans in a Tupperware box that is airtight. Before you eat them though the beans will need to be soaked first.

Dwarf French Beans Pests and Diseases

As with any fruit an vegetables they attract pests and diseases and it’s always good to help avoid them. Here we tell you how to try and stop the issues.

Birds:- they love the Bean plants when they are small and in the ground. The pigeons will love to eat them down to the ground and you could end up losing all your crop. Either protect them with netting or use plastic bottles cut in half to cover them with until they are a lot bigger. You could even try making a scarecrow to keep the birds away.

Slugs and Snails – These will always be a problem with any type of plant that you grow. But if the slugs eat the tops off the plants this will stop them from growing to a decent height. Set up beer traps, egg shells or any other slug deterrent.

Purchase Dwarf French Beans

Do you want to try your green fingers at growing dwarf French Beans. Here you can purchase some through our Amazon link

Click to find Dwarf French Beans For Sale

Here you can find out more tips and advice for growing fruit and vegetables – click here