Parsnip | Pastinaca sativa
Grown for its delicious long taproot, the humble parsnip is not generally in the spotlight, but for many people a roast dinner isn’t complete without it. Native to Europe and Asia, parsnip is from the family Apiaceae, like its frequent Sunday roast companion, the carrot. Parsnip was farmed by the Romans, but it’s not part of modern Italian cuisine unless you count the pigs to which they’re fed. Parsnips can be grown as annuals or biennials. They
require a bit of an investment in time and space in the ground, but the cream-coloured taproot is worth the wait, cropping in the autumn and winter. The good news is that after sowing from March to May, they are low maintenance, the main activities being thinning and keeping clear of weeds. Before sugar cane was imported, parsnip was used as
a sweetener in cooked dishes. The flavour depends on the cultivar, but generally, the longer the root stays in the ground, the sweeter it will be, especially if it can go through a frost. Now for the warning after heaping so much praise on this delectable root: please take care when handling the stems and leaves: the sap can cause a skin rash and even blindness. JK
Amaranth | Amaranthus cruentus
Amaranth was cultivated around 700 years ago by the Aztecs as food, but it was also used for ceremonial purposes, including rituals that featured human sacrifice. When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Americas in the sixteenth century, they forced the Aztec people to convert to Christianity and banned amaranth cultivation on religious grounds. They tried to eradicate it, punishing anyone possessing or cultivating the plant and burning any fields it grew in, unwittingly denying themselves a nutritional gold mine. This highly valuable crop almost disappeared. It survived in a few remote areas where farmers risked their lives to cultivate it in secret until generations later people were allowed to grow it openly again. The whole amaranth plant is edible from seed to leaf and may be a promising crop of the future. Its high nutritional value and ability to adapt and grow in a range of harsh environments and survive droughts mean it’s less vulnerable to climate change. Amaranth is easily grown from seed in the UK, and researchers believe that commercial amaranth production could help decrease the UK’s reliance on imports of plant proteins such as soya. HE
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