The plan for today was to be writing about how I’d got my garlic planted, and for once was ahead of the autumn garden chores. But overnight rain just about every night this week, along with some during the day too, has left the ground so soggy that the garlic is going to have to wait until things dry out a bit.
A new plan – some baking. Next week the school gardening club has it’s last meeting this season. On the last meeting of the year we finish tidying up the garden for winter and then sit down to enjoy some soup and cake made with ingredients we’ve grown. In the past there’s been potato and leek soup, pumpkin soup and a very good carrot cake. This year I want to try some scones with parsnip in them, sweet or savoury – haven’t decided which yet, maybe I should let them try both.
So, as I squelched up the garden after feeding the hens this morning, I pulled up the first of the parsnips and headed back to the kitchen. If this one’s anything to go by, the parsnips I’ve grown aren’t going to be winning any prizes for good looks, just hope it tastes better than it looks.
At a local food festival earlier this year my son picked up some recipe cards with ideas for using up leftovers and reducing food waste. One card has a recipe for spicy parsnip scones – a way to use up sour milk. I’ve used this recipe, with a few changes (I didn’t have any sour milk for one thing) to make a batch of savoury scones. The smoked paprika gives them a lovely flavour. I had a scone for lunch with a bowl of carrot and ginger soup left over from last night – very good!
I’m adding these scones to Ren Behan’s Simple and in Season blog challenge, which is being hosted this month by Nazima and Pierre at Franglais Kitchen. If you’re looking for seasonal inspiration there’s plenty to be had over at their blog.
And next week I’ll need to try making some sweet parsnip scones – any ideas for flavourings?
Parsnip & paprika scones
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
75g unsalted butter
100g peeled parsnips, grated
50g cheddar, grated
½ tsp smoked paprika
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 free range egg
100ml milk
Preheat the oven to 190oC, 375F, gas5.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the grated parsnip, cheese, paprika and some salt and pepper to taste. Give everything a good stir to mix thoroughly. Stir the egg and milk through the mixture to form a soft dough.
Turn the dough out onto a floured board and roll out until it’s about 1 ½ cm thick. Cut out rounds from the dough and put them on a greased baking sheet. Bake the scones for15-20 minutes, until they are starting to brown on the top.
Cool for a few minutes on a wire rack. Then cut one in half, spread with some good salty butter and enjoy!
The Garden Deli 
Mmmm….for some reason Nutmeg and White Chocolate popped into my brain – nice or nasty?!
Hmmm – sounds strange, but interesting… it just might work! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!
Hadn’t thought of using parsnips in scones but great idea, will try these. Would a sweet version with a little cinnamon and nutmeg work, maybe with a few sultanas? You’ve inspired me to be more inventive. Andrea
Parsnip and spices would be good – looks like I might be baking more than one batch of sweet parsnip scones!
Love the recipe – we don’t do much with parsnips, but I *do* like them.
Garlic goes in next week, if all goes according to plan… We all know how THAT goes, dont we? 😉
Good luck with the garlic plan – I’m sure it will all work out just fine!
I hadn’t even realised it was already time to plant garlic, oops! Planting LOTS this winter, just finished using the 23 from this year. Your parsnip scones look and sound amazing, I think I might have to do a bit of parsnip baking myself. I’m thinking a little nutmeg for the sweet ones too!
I’m not sure when garlic planting time is in France – might not be the same time as Yorkshire! I think you’re right about the nutmeg – maybe with a bit of honey for sweetness?
You could always plant your garlic outside in 75mm pots and plant in the ground when it’s dried out a bit. I do the same for shallots, I’ve already planted 150′ shallot buls in pots and they are growing away
Thanks Mike, that sounds like a good idea. Although if the weather carries on like this, it may be well into next year before the ground dries out! I do have raised beds, but I’ve grown garlic in both of them over the last couple of years and am not sure how soon I can replant with garlic.
It would be great if you could rotate the crop location, but if not don’t worry, I’ve planted onions in the same position for 4 years, with no problems. Whatever you do just get the garlic into pots or the ground, so the garlic can bulb up, for this it needs to be exposed to cold conditions for about a month, but before this it needs to set its roots in well prepared ground.
Am planning to plant the garlic today – some in pots and some straight into the ground.
Just reading about your school garden, why don’t you enter the RHS Tatton Flower Show, with a trug of veg competition for schools. It would be great for the kids, and if you need any help just ask
I really like this idea. We’ve grown pelargoniums for the local show in the past – best plant and best decorated pot.
I like your baking plan. I’m also intrigued about school gardening club. Any thoughts and pointers on how to start one up?
We were very lucky with our school garden because one of the parents worked for Yorkshire Water and arranged for a team to come over with materials and manpower to build the garden for us – it was a great start. There’s lots of information on the internet with ideas for starting a gardening club, the RHS and other local schools that have gardens are useful sources of information, and there’s a book called ‘The playground potting shed’ by Dominic Murphy which is really good for ideas. We’ve had a lot of fun with the garden, and have an enthusiastic bunch of young gardener’s who work hard to keep it (reasonably) neat, tidy and full of flowers and vegetables.
I do like the idea of parsnip scones, particularly savoury ones. I’m struggling with the idea of sweet parsnip scones but then I do have trouble imagining flavours generally. I find a gentle pinch of chilli can work well in sweets as well as savoury though.
The savoury scones were good – maybe I should quit while I’m ahead? I was thinking that the children might prefer sweet scones, and hoping that adding parsnip would be a bit like using carrot in a cake. I wouldn’t argue with adding some chilli though.
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I love savoury scones. I imagine some chilli and cheese would be great with them.
For sweet I agree with some of the others, raisins, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg all spices associated with winter baking would not go amiss here.
I went with honey and nutmeg for the sweet scones in the end, but have a whole list of other flavours to try from everyone’s suggestions. My family has started looking at the scones I make and asking suspiciously if there is any parsnip in them!
You should make them parsnip fudge. That’d confuse them. It’s in Harry eastwood’s book.
Parsnip fudge? Not at all sure about that – have you tried it?
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What a great idea. Obvious now you mention itbuy it hadn’t crossed my mind. I’ve made parsnip and bacon muffins before but scones lend themselves to it. I’m definitely making some of these. Thanks.
Thanks Gill! Hope you like them!