Skirret
Skirret: Sowing, planting and harvest calendar
Skirret, Sium sisarum, is a herbaceous perennial in the Apiaceae family, which also includes carrots and parsnips. It is a distinct species, not a wild parsnip. Once familiar as a root vegetable in European gardens, it now offers an interesting way to broaden the range of perennial food plants in your garden.Its most characteristic feature is underground: several slender, pale roots grow together from the crown. Unlike a carrot with one substantial taproot, a skirret clump produces a bundle of roots of different sizes. Their shape gives the crop a particular appearance and means that the edible portion consists of several separate roots rather than a single large vegetable.The roots have a sweet flavour often compared with a mixture of carrot and parsnip. Texture varies between plants and with growing conditions. Some roots contain a fibrous or woody central core, so tenderness is not identical in every specimen. This variation…
