"parsnips" news and stories

• Grace is simply stunning: Portland, Maine's newest restaurant pulled off an epic historic renovation to turn Chestnut Street United Methodist Church into an impressive dining experience (at right).
  
• Don't pass on the parsnips. They offer a "sweet, caramel-y flavor" that makes them ripe for roasting.
• The old-school Chateau Brane-Cantenac is enjoying a quality upswing with notable new wines.
• Battle Lobster: Steve Corry will represent Maine in an "Iron Chef"-like charity event.
• No locale is safe from fiddlehead fever: Portland jumps on the bandwagon with a recipe for a tasty sauté with sugar snaps and baby carrots.
• California's producing bottles of sauvignon blanc that offer surprising softness.
• A recipe for tasty but fattening Congo Squares.
• A rundown of local events.

Depending on how you look at it, the Nation Trust's ugly vegetable competition is either a good idea or a bad one. On one hand, it gets kids involved in growing their own fruits and vegetables, which could start them with good habits for later in life. On the other hand, the sight of some of the "winners" could put them off veggies for quite some time.

The contest isn't just for children, though. It started as a way to cultivate some appreciation for ugly fruits and vegetables, most of which are underappreciated in the kitchen. There are multiple age categories: under 5, 5-7, 8-11, 11-16, 25-65 and over 65 years old. In each range there was a winner and this parsnip, grown by Mrs Hilary Nellist in the 25-65 group, took home the grand prize for the ugliest vegetable of the year.

There were no winners for the 16-25 category, which either means that they are all exceptional gardeners and can't grow ugly veggies or that gardening isn't exactly a cool past-time for that age group.

[via growabrain]

Source

A Concord, Mass., farm that grows produce for local charities recently reported 200 pounds of parsnips missing. According to The Concord Journal, it appears that someone snuck on to the property of volunteer-operated Gaining Ground and uprooted the tasty vegetables. So far, no arrests have been made. What's baffling is that the crops apparently aren't visible from the street and, according to Gaining Ground's coordinator, parsnips are hard to spot anyway. There's some speculation that this may have been an inside job. Hopefully it won't happen again. I really have to wonder how one even manages to abscond with 200 pounds of root vegetables.

Not a great fan of parsnips me - in fact along with mushy peas they are perhaps one of my most detested foods. Still a lot of people enjoy them (for some odd reason) and may relish this recipe. It comes from Jill Norman's New Penguin Cookery Book (ISBN 0140276556 £14.99/US$22.68).  

Parsnips with Ginger

• 3 tbsp butter
• 500g parsnips finely sliced length-ways
• 3 pieces stem ginger in syrup drained and finely chopped
• 100ml Madeira
• Pinch Nutmeg
• Salt and pepper

Melt butter in a pan and add the parsnips. Stew, stirring over a gentle heat for 15 minutes until soft but not browned. Add ginger, Madeira and nutmeg plus the seasonings. Cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Add more Madeira during cooking if it looks a little too dry.