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

Chris wrote:

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

Over what period?

"Replaced" as reflected in which statistics?

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

I doubt statistics are available on the quantities of different crops cultivated in mediaeval times and earlier, so we will have to do with lower quality evidence.

Wikipedia says
"Until the potato arrived from the New World, its place in dishes was occupied by the parsnip and other root vegetables such as the turnip." Unfortunately it does not source this comment. In fact practically nothing in the Wiki article on the parsnip is sourced. But note, it does not say that parsnip was a staple, but rather that root vegetables in general took the place that potatoes have today.

I would dispute your assertion that parsnips have all the advantages. Rather potatoes have all the advantages (except possibly taste, though I would say a dislike of parsnips is a lot more common than a dislike of potatoes). My understanding is that the yield of potatoes is larger than the yield of other route vegetables. Also being more starchy than other root vegetables you can grow in cool climates, they are more nutritious - typical calorific values per 100g from Wikipedia are 55 for parsnip but potato is 77Cal, which is quite a lot more.

So I would suggest potatoes became the major root vegetable in temperate climates because both the yield and nutritional value is typically substantially higher. That is why Irish people living on small pieces of land grew little but potatoes, and hence starved when the blight hit, because they were mainly growing just one variety, the Lumper.

On 05/10/2010 13:00, Janet wrote:
In ], ] says...

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 you get one parsnip plant.

Plant one seed potato and you get a big bucket of potatoes.


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.

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

In message ,
Janet writes
In article ], ] says...

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 you get one parsnip plant.

Plant one seed potato and you get a big bucket of potatoes.

Janet

Common wisdom, for what it's worth, is that potatoes became a staple
because they produced a higher yield per acre then other crops.

I'm mildly curious as to when parsnips (as opposed to carrots,
beetroots, turnips and swedes) were a staple, and as to what the
advantages of parsnips are.

--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

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

In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

Common wisdom, for what it's worth, is that potatoes became a staple
because they produced a higher yield per acre then other crops.

I'm mildly curious as to when parsnips (as opposed to carrots,
beetroots, turnips and swedes) were a staple, and as to what the
advantages of parsnips are.

I believe that the evidence for the former is scant, but the answer
to the second is a higher calorific content and less liable to rot
over winter.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 10/05/2010 03:23 PM, David Rance wrote:
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.


FWIW parsnips (panais) are considered an "old folks" vegetable in
France, and indeed they went out of fashion and weren't widely
available. Most people who grew their own food during the war would
know them, though.

We saw them appearing in open markets about 10 years ago, now they're
pretty widely available from better veg vendors, even as you point out
showing up at the big chains like Leclerc now and again. (In their
defense Leclerc has a "buy local" policy that means your parsnips are
likely to come from a local grower. In fact they may well come from a
farmer in our village, who's carrots and parsnips are seen at Leclercs
as far north as Falaise.)

Certainly true they're a bit exotic still, which is a laugh: exotic
parsnips!

-E

On 05/10/2010 15:37, wrote:
In ,
Stewart Robert wrote:

Common wisdom, for what it's worth, is that potatoes became a staple
because they produced a higher yield per acre then other crops.

I'm mildly curious as to when parsnips (as opposed to carrots,
beetroots, turnips and swedes) were a staple, and as to what the
advantages of parsnips are.

I believe that the evidence for the former is scant, but the answer
to the second is a higher calorific content and less liable to rot
over winter.


I was harvesting parsnips from the garden right through last Winter and
into Spring. If anything their flavour seemed to improve for having been
frozen solid in the ground on a few occasions. They seemed sweeter. The
extreme cold didn't seem to bother them at all.

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

On Tue, 5 Oct 2010 Emery Davis wrote:

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.

FWIW parsnips (panais) are considered an "old folks" vegetable in
France, and indeed they went out of fashion and weren't widely
available. Most people who grew their own food during the war would
know them, though.

But that's my point. My neighbour *didn't* know what they were. He died
about four years ago at the age of 82. He was a Norman villager and did
grow his own vegetables during and after the war. And when we showed him
one a few years ago he said he'd never seen it before and certainly
didn't know what it was called. He didn't recognise the word when we
told him!

David

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

In message , Emery Davis
writes
On 10/05/2010 03:23 PM, David Rance wrote:
Incidentally, David, for the first time a week ago I saw parsnips for
sale in a French supermarket

snip.

Certainly true they're a bit exotic still, which is a laugh: exotic
parsnips!


In Asda in Wakefield about 10 years ago (my wife's cousin worked there
as a Saturday job) they had Turnip classified as an exotic vegetable on
their till crib sheet.
--
Chris French

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

Seeing as I find roast parsnip revolting whereas I love crispy roast
potatoes I find it totally understandable.

--
Regards
Sue & Bob Hobden

"Sacha" wrote ...
, "Bob Hobden" said:
"Chris" wrote
Why have potatoes replaced parsnips as a staple?
Parsnips seem to have all the advantages.
Maybe there are commercial factors?

Seeing as I find roast parsnip revolting whereas I love crispy roast
potatoes I find it totally understandable.

LOL! My daughter has to leave the kitchen when I'm preparing parsnips.
She loathes them so much that they have to be roasted separately from all
other meat or veg so as not to taint them!

Roasted it tastes like it's been marinated in perfume to me, absolutely
horrid.
Now in a casserole with all the other root veg and a few dried beans all
covering some beef with dumplings on the top, absolute heaven. :-)

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

On 06/10/2010 10:58, Janet wrote:
In , says...

"Sacha" wrote ...
, "Bob Hobden" said:
"Chris" wrote
Why have potatoes replaced parsnips as a staple?
Parsnips seem to have all the advantages.
Maybe there are commercial factors?

Seeing as I find roast parsnip revolting whereas I love crispy roast
potatoes I find it totally understandable.

LOL! My daughter has to leave the kitchen when I'm preparing parsnips.
She loathes them so much that they have to be roasted separately from all
other meat or veg so as not to taint them!

Roasted it tastes like it's been marinated in perfume to me, absolutely
horrid.
Now in a casserole with all the other root veg and a few dried beans all
covering some beef with dumplings on the top, absolute heaven. :-)

Have you tried it in parsnip curry soup? Hot and spicy.

Janet

I love parsnips and ditto curries and soups, but found parsnip curry
soup revolting. Parsnips seem to evoke more strong likes and dislikes
than Marmite! lol

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

On 10/05/2010 06:35 PM, David Rance wrote:
On Tue, 5 Oct 2010 Emery Davis wrote:

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.

FWIW parsnips (panais) are considered an "old folks" vegetable in
France, and indeed they went out of fashion and weren't widely
available. Most people who grew their own food during the war would
know them, though.

But that's my point. My neighbour *didn't* know what they were. He died
about four years ago at the age of 82. He was a Norman villager and did
grow his own vegetables during and after the war. And when we showed him
one a few years ago he said he'd never seen it before and certainly
didn't know what it was called. He didn't recognise the word when we
told him!


Well, our experiences appear to differ. I'm sure there are older folks
down here who don't know it either, in fact I can think of one
immediately. The point was that many do. (Perhaps most was an
overstatement).

I'm sure there's geographical variation, too.

-E