Wednesday 1 April 2009

Carrots and parsnips / Les carottes et les panais

One of my favourite Welsh dishes is stwnts, mashed carrots and parsnips.  We've never been very successful with growing either of these vegetables, but we thought we'd try this year.  We're lucky to have some help in the garden at the moment because our daughter, La Jardinièra, is staying with us and she and Lo Jardinièr prepared a bed for me to sow the seeds in.

Un de mes plats gallois favoris est le stwnts, les carottes et les panais écrasés.  Nous n'avons pas réussis avec ces légumes, mais on a decidé d'éssayer cette année.  En ce moment heureusement nous avons de l'aide dans le jardin parce que notre fille, La Jardinièra, passe quelques jours avec nous.   Avec Lo Jardinièr elle a préparé la terre pour semer les carrottes et les panais.

carrot bed 1_1_1 carrot bed 2_1_1_1

They sifted the soil and mixed it with some compost and sand.  / Ils ont tamisé la terre et l'ont mélangée avec du compost et de la sable.

We followed the advice of one of our gardening neighbours: the day before we soaked the seeds in water. /  Nous avons suivi l'avis d'un voisin: la veille nous avons trempé les semences.

carrot seeds soaking_1_1_1 parsnip seeds soaking_1_1

 

carrots   parsnips 1_1_1 carrots   parsnips 2_1_1
carrots   parsnips 3_1_1 carrots   parsnips 4_1_1

We mixed the seed with sand and then broadcast it in wide rows, then covered them lightly.  /  On a mélangé les semences avec la sable et puis on les a semée à la volée.  Puis on les a couvertes légèrement.

We'll see whether they grow! / On vera si elles poussera!

Another spring salad in the garden / Une salade du printemps du jardin encore

another spring salad_1_1 

Broad bean leaves, sorrel, wild rocket, parsley, spinach, oregano.  /  Feuilles de fèves, oseille, roquette sauvage, persil, épinards, oreganum.

6 comments:

Jan said...

Amazingly, carrots were one of the few vegetables we managed to grow last year! Good luck!

easygardener said...

We are ok growing parsnips but carrots are another story. All failures - either they don't germinate, don't grow or carrot fly gets them. It is exasperating to have a vegetable that is such a disaster!

CityGarden said...

I hope you'll be lucky with carrots! I also sow some of them but I am not sure if they can survive in plot

chaiselongue said...

Thanks to all for your comments. It seems there are mixed fortunes with carrots - either they grow well or it's disastrous! We'll see what happens here. Once they're established (if they get established??) they should have deep enough roots not to need too much water, I suppose.

B + S said...

Ohh planting your parsnips!! I just dug mine up! i didn't realize that the greens on favas are edible, yum!

LadyLuz said...

I hope you get a good crop of parsnips and carrots and will be interested to hear about it. No sign down these parts of parsnips, or swedes. I don't think it gets cold enough during the growing time...same with brussel sprouts. But, there are enough delicious local veg, aren't there, to keep us going. Like you, we're longing for the summer crop of aubergine, peppers and the fab tomatoes.

BTW, we did have haul of large caulis but the second planting, a week or so later, just didn't mature. The result was what you saw; the flavour was spectacular.