Wild Parsnip Beer?

[jgln]

We have a ton of wild parsnips growing along our driveway. A couple weeks ago while working on the driveway I noticed just how big the root was so I picked one and brought it back to the house and tried cooking it like a turnip. That went well but the taste was not all that great, even with a lot of butter, salt and pepper.

Anyway, I was doing a search to see how many people eat them and what they think and aside from eating them some people (namely Irish) also made beer with them. I assume this was a long time ago. So the question is has anyone ever tried this or even heard of this?

Each root is about 8" or more in dia., probably close to one hundred of them

We also had an old man with a foreign accent who drove up our driveway and was picking the leaves. I was at work but I told my fiancee to go ask him what he was doing. He told her it was wild broccoli rabe. Weird thing is he had no problem driving several hundred feet up our driveway and on our property.

 

[sconnie]

Parsnips are fantastic as food, I can't believe you didn't like them! Like more flavorful carrots. Try roasting them like potatoes or carrots with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Yummmy.
Anyway, I've never heard of beer with parsnips, but why not give it a try? Furthermore beer in wisconsin made an interesting beer with beets called Thermorefur. Why not parsnips?

 

[jgln]

Parsnips are fantastic as food, I can't believe you didn't like them! Like more flavorful carrots. Try roasting them like potatoes or carrots with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Yummmy.
Anyway, I've never heard of beer with parsnips, but why not give it a try? Furthermore beer in wisconsin made an interesting beer with beets called Thermorefur. Why not parsnips?

Well, keep in mind these are wild parsnips and since they are flowering now only about a month since I tried them they are probably old. I think they grow one year then begin to grow again in the early spring, set seed and then die. But maybe I will check on the new ones this year or try them in the winter.

 

[DilvishTheDamned]

My gf is in the process of making some really nice parsnip wine. We tasted a bit a while back, tasted very very good, like a slightly woody/carroty white wine. She got a recipe from the book "Making Wild Wines and Meads", which has a lot of wild stuff in it.

 

[grayburn]

My gf is in the process of making some really nice parsnip wine. We tasted a bit a while back, tasted very very good, like a slightly woody/carroty white wine. She got a recipe from the book "Making Wild Wines and Meads", which has a lot of wild stuff in it.

That sounds quite interesting, I'll have to check that book out. Did she also use wild parsnip?

 

[snowmiaow]

I have lots of regular parsnips, and have never heard of wild parsnips. An 8" root is huge. What climate do you live in? As for beer I can vouch for if you didn't like the way the parsnips tasted when you cooked them, you won't like the beer made out of them. That was really weird that the man was harvesting the leaves, since broccoli rabe looks nothing like a parsnip. Are you sure it wasn't poke weed? This plant has a very large root that looks like a parsnip, has a non-edible root, and sends up an edible shoot in the spring.

 

[jgln]

I have lots of regular parsnips, and have never heard of wild parsnips. An 8" root is huge. What climate do you live in? As for beer I can vouch for if you didn't like the way the parsnips tasted when you cooked them, you won't like the beer made out of them. That was really weird that the man was harvesting the leaves, since broccoli rabe looks nothing like a parsnip. Are you sure it wasn't poke weed? This plant has a very large root that looks like a parsnip, has a non-edible root, and sends up an edible shoot in the spring.

No I am not 100% sure. Someone in the neighborhood called them that. I live in NJ. We can have cold winters (snow/ice/temps in the teens) and hot (up to 100) dry summers. Then cool spring (usually rainy) and cool fall.