parsley root

Hello June. Right now Arran is breezy, bright and sunny, though bad weather's forecast for later on. Life here is good and we're having a very mild autumn so far. I belong to the Island's gardening group and I'm going to ask at the next meeting if anybody here has grown and, more importantly to stay on topic, cooked and eaten Hamburg parsley. Will let you know. Google's bound to help anyway.

We had toasted halloumi cheese with steamed vegetables for dinner last night. All the vegetables were out of the garden, on November 6th! Parsnips, beetroot, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes and carrots you might expect - but not fresh garden peas. The weather's been so mild that the peas are beginning to flower again on the plants I should have pulled up earlier. We could also have had courgettes and a few French beans. Anybody else eating out of season vegs from the garden?

I don't know if anybody else has tried growing it, but we also had celtuce. You eat the peeled thick stalk steamed-boiled but not the leaves, they're said to be bitter and unpleasant. (Is there an unsmiley not at all that taken with celtuce - has anybody had more luck with it? I gather that it's used in Chinese cookery. Perhaps we need an inventive recipe? We're not going to grow it again but I might have a bash at the Hamburg parsley if I can find the seed.

Look forward to hearing from you Love Susie -- Susie Thompson SPAM BLOCK IN OPERATION! Replace "deadspam.com" with "arrandragons.co.uk" to reply by e-mail.