Parsnip

The parsnip is a root vegetable closely related to carrot and parsley, all in the carrot family, biennial but usually grown as an annual, with a long taproot of light cream-colored skin and flesh that becomes sweeter after winter frosts if left in the ground to mature. In its first growing season the plant forms a rosette of mid-green, pinnate leaves, and if left unharvested it produces a flowering stem in its second season topped by small yellow flowers, after which the stem becomes woody and the taproot inedible. The parsnip is native to Eurasia, has been used as a vegetable since antiquity, and was cultivated by the Romans, though ancient writers sometimes confused it with the carrot; it was used as a sweetener before sugar became widely available.