The parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) is a root vegetable closely related to the carrot and parsley. It is a biennial plant usually grown as anannual. Its long tuberous root has cream-colored skin and flesh and can be left in the ground when mature as it becomes sweeter in flavor after winter frosts. In its first growing season, the plant has a rosette of pinnate, mid-green leaves. If unharvested, it produces its flowering stem, topped by an umbel of small yellow flowers, in its second growing season. By this time the stem is woody and the tuber inedible. The seeds are pale brown, flat and winged.

Our Parsnips are planted the beginning of May. They require more time to fully mature than Carrots do. This puts them being harvested as early as the middle of August. We try to hold of storing them until after a frost, when they seem to turn sweeter. They can typically store well until the beginning of May.