Did your parsnips taste great?

We really try our best with the root veg to make sure you have the best shot of having the best taste.

There are a number of ways we try to do this. First we pick the right variety, we avoid those varieties that have the biggest yield, as they tend to be the worst taste.

The French say the biggest factor to taste is the soil, so looking after the soil has become the wholly grail of Groobarbs. The easiest way to look after the soil is to encourage the natural organisms that live in the soil to thrive.

Another big factor to great taste (that is lost on supermarkets) is keeping the soil on the roots, when the roots are washed it does damage them a little. When we started out we never washed the carrots or parsnips and it was better for taste but we have found you prefer not having having soil all over your fridge so we do some hand washing as gently as we can to get most of the soil off.

Spuds are definitely better washed at the time of cooking. The number of emails about their taste shows that we will continue to not wash the spuds.

Speed of delivery from picking to your door assists taste in a big way. So we only pick within 24 hours of delivery and everything we do is hand picked.

The way we grow is very friendly on the environment compared to the super markets and large farms. They went for ‘efficiency’ but I think the best way is some hand picked roots grown near where you live!