Parsnip Man

At our vegetable pick-up last week, Ada was thrilled by a special parsnip standing out from the box of regular roots. This large parsnip was dressed up, with a bit of root stuck through its "head" to make a jaunty mustache, and a friendly drawn-on face. (Sadly, I'd left my camera at home, so we just had to enjoy the parsnip in person.)

When it was time to go, Ada was disappointed that we could not take the parsnip with us. I explained that others would want to see this funny vegetable, and suggested we could make one of our own at home. Once home, Ada asked me to fulfill my promise, which I did. I will admit that I am a huge fan of parsnips and was loathe to sacrifice an entire one to this project. Instead, I took a parsnip with two root bases and snapped off one to make our own parsnip man.  I gave this little guy root arms, and then followed Ada's instructions for his other decorations.

After a few days living in a container outside the fridge, Parsnip Man has suffered a bit of shrinkage but is otherwise intact. When Ada and I talked about why PM is shrinking (parsnips have a lot of water in them, when a parsnip is left out the water is leaves the parsnip and evaporates into the air) she got a bit worried that PM would disappear completely. Once I assured her that PM was made partly but not entirely of water, she relaxed.

I didn't mention that no matter what, in a few weeks PM is likely to disappear completely anyway, most likely into our compost bin. Don't tell Ada, or Parsnip Man for that matter. I want his time with us to be happy.