Beth Camp Historical Fiction

Friday, April 18, 2014

P is for Parsnip . . .


That pale white root
that lays on your plate,
rather like a carrot
left over from winter
that someone boiled
far too long,
disguised with parsley and butter,
a parsimonious vegetable,
knobby and true
to its own sweet self.

Parsnip (Wikipedia)
Still hanging in with a shorter poem today for the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Read what others have written HERE.

I was amused to learn that parsnips are actually part of the parsley family -- grown by Romans, with winged seeds. But the lowly parsnip has its dark side; if you handle it too much, the parsnip may give you a skin rash!


3 comments:

  1. I didn't know you could get a rash from parsnips and I didn't know they were part of the parsley family. Thanks for the info. I LOVE parsnips cooked (but not overcooked) with a bit of butter and salt!

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  2. TThanks, Kathy. I also really like to eat parsnips, but I also like how different they are, all knobby. It was fun to learn about their history -- and their dark side. My grandmother used to cook them, part of the Depression Era heritage.

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  3. Great post!

    Please visit my blog, http://www.thatgirlybookworm.blogspot.ca

    I'm also participating in the A-Z Challenge, and my theme focuses on YA books and the title of the day starts with the letter of the day!

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