The plant (not the root which we eat) is actually classified as harmful, and it can sting. The parsnip comes from the same family as hemlock, celery, parsley and caraway. This means that they will flower in their second year but we tend to eat them all before they get to the flowering stage, so we seldom see their rather fabulous yellow flowers. But now the parsnip is back! Yellow parsnip flowers The potato quickly grew more popular than the parsnip and over the years it came to be neglected and was almost forgotten completely by some. But then, in 1536, the potato arrived in europe and it seemed as if the writing was on the wall for the humble parsnip. It was easy to grow, plus you could store it for a longer period – the ideal foodstuff before they had fridges. Our parsnip was largely popular in the middle ages. That is why most people wait with harvesting them until, after the first frost has bitten. Being exposed to the freezing cold actually makes parsnips taste better. And you know what? The parsnip grew much larger in colder regions. But as the Roman armies moved further north, they took the pastinaca sativa with them. In Rome, parsnips used to be smaller, though – the plant was originally the same size as a normal carrot. Parsnips were a luxury item for our Roman ancestors. It was definitely not the food, although sometimes that decadence took the form of great orgies of culinary madness. It was decadence that brought down the Romans, history teaches us.
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