posted 3 years ago
I dug out my mother's parsnips a couple of weeks ago. I dug a trench along the row, a full spade depth. It was dry; I put my whole weight on the shovel and stomped. Then I dug another trench in the trench, teasing out the long parsnip noses.
I can see why a short-and-stout variant might be nice, but the largest portion of parsnip awesomness is in the top spade-depth anyway. I don't think it matters if you choose to abandon the deeper bits; the rest of the root is just breaking up deep soil and adding veggie matter.