parsley root?
 

This week I've been thinning out the Italian (flat) parsley that has taken over my garden, some of it with half-inch-thick roots. Coincidentally, I noticed seeds for "parsley root" in one of the catalogs. Does anyone grow parsley root, and how do you use it? I was thinking of using it like parsnips, either roasted or in soups.

I've also harvested lots of mache (before it starts elongating and going to seed) and kale (flowering tops just short of flowering) this week.

Here's what I found at Wikipedia:

[B]Root parsley[/B]

Another type of parsley is grown as a [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_vegetable"]root vegetable[/URL], as with [B]hamburg root parsley[/B]. This type of parsley produces much thicker [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root"]roots[/URL] than types cultivated for their leaves. Although little known in [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain"]Britain[/URL] and the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States"]United States[/URL], root parsley is very common in [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Europe"]Central[/URL] and [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_European_cuisine"]Eastern European cuisine[/URL], used in soups and stews. Parsley grows best between 72 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit (23 to 30 degrees Celsius).
Though it looks similar to [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsnip"]parsnip[/URL] it tastes quite different. Parsnips are among the closest relatives of parsley in the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbellifer"]umbellifer[/URL] family of herbs. The similarity of the names is a coincidence, parsnip meaning "forked turnip", it is not related to real turnips.