2020 was our first year to grow parsnips here at 9,000 ft, and have been part of my garden ever since. If you’ve never tried them, you don’t know what you’re missing. They are DELICIOUS sauteed with a little butter.

As with most root vegetables, they did very well here. Gladiator F1 (110 Days) seeds were sown in the ground May 15, and harvested October 24, 181 days after direct seeding. Some could have been harvested sooner, I’m sure, but I typically leave my root vegetables in the ground until I think it might freeze too much to dig them out. Parsnips can handle the snow or frost without difficulty, in fact I’ve read that the frost will help sweeten them up.

In my quest to start saving seeds, I’ve grown White Spear OP parsnips the last couple of years, and they do just as well as the hybrid Gladiators. Since they are biennials and produce seeds their second year, I saved a couple of parsnips from the first summer, replanted them in the spring the following spring, and that fall I was able to harvest GOBS of parsnip seeds, which I will be planting the spring of 2024.

These parsnips (left) sustained some damage from the pack rats chewing off their tops, but they survived, and most that were planted were harvested, as shown above.