As I was writing this last night, the shopping arrived. there seems to be a worldwide parsnip shortage. Most weeks they seem to be out of stock. This is getting far too much like the episode of Foyle’s War where they had the onion raffle. At least in the war we had an excuse – most of our onions, even in 1939, were imported. Some of them were even imported by French farmers using onion sellers on bikes. Somehow this has become enshrined in British memory, even though I have never seen one. I’ve also seen the onion shortage put down to a lack of Dutch imports, but can’t find a reference to this. Another source cites the Channel Islands, Bermuda and Spain. That last link is very good, with some interesting details about onions in the early part of the war.

The problem is that it has been very wet here. This is bad for many vegetables, including potatoes, carrots and potatoes. There are reasonable international sources of potatoes and carrots but most of our parsnip imports come from Spain. Guess what? They are short of parsnips in Spain because it is too dry. I was tempted use capitals and an exclamation mark there, but have decided against it. They hope that the Spanish main crop, due any time now, will alleviate the problem.

Carrot, Parsnip and Swede Soup

Meanwhile, aggravating my supply problem (as in my problem with surpluses rather than shortages) is the fact that I opened a tin of tomatoes by accident last night. I thought they were mushy peas (I was having Omega 3 fish fingers again). In a slight daze, caused by a washing up frenzy, I reached out and picked up the wrong tin.

It’s going to be tomato soup for lunch. I was planning on not having soup until tomorrow, when it was going to be roasted vegetable soup using leftover roast veg from the lot I will be doing tonight. Soup for lunch means I won’t be having eggs as planned, meaning I am now building up a surplus of eggs. With hindsight, I should have bought a pastry case instead of a quiche. I’ve never been good at making my own pastry, and with arthritic fingers   I now do not need to feel guilty about buying it in.

TESCO – Top Valley, Nottingham. A shop with no Parsnips.