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My mother used to have a deep fryer in which she made home made fish and chips and sometimes deep fried eggs and chips – maybe that was a Yorkshire thing because I’ve never seen that since, and after our grandmother had a heart attack the deep fryer went the same way as the fried bread bacon sandwiches, never to be seen again. A deep fried egg becomes a spherical crispy, frothy thing and we dipped our chips in the yolks. Sometimes, without warning, the chips would be made out of parsnips and all of us kids were put off parsnips for years because of that shock of getting a parsnip in your mouth when expecting a hot potato chip, indeed my sister still can’t eat them. I think Mum should have told us what to expect. I was converted back to them as an adult when my friend used to make carrot and parsnip mash full of butter for me, and now I love the way they caremelise and turn sweet and silky when roasted

Enjoyed in Ancient Rome and virtually indistinguishable from carrots which were white or purple back then, the parsnip made its way to the rest of Europe in the dark ages where it was used as a source of sugar. After being introduced to North America in the 18th century it was eventually replaced as a main source of starch by the potato. Today they do not form a part of Italian cuisine but are instead fed to the pigs which are used to make parma ham.

Parsnips contain significant amounts of potassium, more even than a banana at a whopping 1000 mg of potassium per 250g serving of parsnip compared to 800 mg in the same weight of banana. There are also useful amounts of vitamin c and some B vitamins.

I planted these in the photo in December. They are notoriously difficult to germinate, but it can be done by watering the seeds well, then covering with an untannelised board and leaving them alone for three weeks. Like other root crops grown from seed they eventually need to be thinned to avoid getting crammed in as they grow.

See:

• Autumn tray bake
• Quarantine Tagine