Parsnips from the roof farm

Planted in September, they grew and grew, through fall and winter, through freezes, neglect and a gardener's hiatus. I pulled them a few days ago, very excited to be finding life under a leaden sky poised above rooftops otherwise bereft of growth and movement.

About a thumb's width wide, carroty, a little like parsley, crunched quickly in a salad with slivers of pear and peppery bites of watercress. Worth it? Hard to say. Yes. I was not using their container for anything else during those months, so the space was not wasted. Though I am realizing, as a rooftop gardener with limited means, that crops need to be repeat-bearing if they are to hold my attention. Once you pull  a parsnip, that's it. That's the end of the parsnip.

But I like them. Their winter season is what sells me. I must not buy carrots seeds, whatever else I do (short of turnips and beets, of course). Intervene if I seem to be hinting at carrots. Carrots are a waste of precious space. A root vegetable embargo, in fact. I am ill equipped to meet their demands.