new member - question about Parsnips from my mum

Hi all have just signed up

My mother has grown some Parsnips as well as Carrots in the garden.

She dug them up yesterday and noticed the leaves at the top were different, and has never seen this before

The leaves are normally like the parsnip on the right, however the parsnip on the left has leaves the same as her carrots.

normal parsnip on the right, carrot centre, odd parsnip on the left

Does anyone know if this is normal for Parsnips to sometimes have the leaves of a carrot?
Thanks all in advance

 

Hi GPZRX

Welcome to the forum.

I think your mum's "parsnip with the leaves of a carrot" is in fact a white carrot.

Carrots come in many colours (try Googling "white carrot") and it's possible that a few seeds may have got mixed in with the parsnips. I've certainly had the odd white specimen appear in the middle of a row of ordinary carrots.

 

hi thanks for the reply, didn't know you could get white carrots!

My mother just informed me it definitely tasted like a parsnip.
Very odd

 

That's interesting. But I'm not sure if I could reliably tell the difference between carrots and parsnips if I were blindfolded when I ate them. Our experience of taste can be radically affected by what our eyes tell our brains to expect.

 

They also had the inner core associated with Parsnips that carrots don't have.

Just trying to work out what it was

 

What inner core would that be? Carrots have an inner core just like parsnips do.

 

I'm no expert, but it was definitely a parsnip and not a white carrot :gnthb:

 

Sorry, I don't wanna argue rather help, but it was a white carrot rather than a parsnip.
Every species have their own unique DNA as you know, and the structure of the leaves are very much so coded in that DNA. However the coloration of a root can be altered by some environmental conditions, so can the taste.

 

Yep it was a white carrot. There is no way in this universe a parsnip would have leaves like that. You can get white carrots and I think purple ones. I understand that originally all carrots were white. I think Jamie oliver said it was the Dutch that started breeding orange ones.

 

I see

So even though it tasted like a parsnip, and was white like a parsnip, it was actually a white carrot

 

Yep and it was white like a carrot used to be. I have had loads of them and never deliberately bought white carrots - i have grown thousands of carrots and parsnips. To be quite honest there is not a huge difference in flavour between the two veg and parsnips will not have developed their full flavour yet - they always reckon that frost brings out the full flavour. Best way to eat parsnips is when they are roasted....mmmmmm Roast parsnips and roast potatoes, preferably Desiree with roast beef or a nice flavoursome chicken, and boiled carrots and a green veg......and a nice glass of wine. I am now drooling at the thought. The French when they look down their noises at our food don't know what they are missing.

 

"The French when they look down their noises at our food don't know what they are missing."

I know what they could do with lol.