On Tue, 5 Oct 2010 David in Normandy wrote:

Why have potatoes replaced parsnips as a staple?
Parsnips seem to have all the advantages.
Maybe there are commercial factors?

Plant one parsnip seed and wait and wait and wait and get one parsnip
seedling and 50 weed seedlings swamping it.

I like parsnips but find them a pain to grow. The only semi-reliable
way I've found is to germinate and grow them first in pots in potting
compost to the size of seedlings and transplant them out. Unfortunately
this leads but badly forked parsnips, but better than none. They are
nice roasted though, so worth growing.

Incidentally, David, for the first time a week ago I saw parsnips for
sale in a French supermarket (Leclerc, I think it was). They were not as
large as those we can buy in Britain but nevertheless they *were*
parsnips.

Don't think I've ever seen them before in the shops in France and my
neighbour certainly didn't know what they were.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk