parsnip-dug

 Thank you to everyone who entered the Name the Tool Competition.  The tool is actually a
parsnip digger.

We received a great range of suggestions, and I was beginning to doubt
the name we were given. But I then chatted to a farmer who worked on a
farm in Royston in the 1960s. He remembered 15 men walking out in the
mornings, each armed with a parsnip digger. They spent a couple of hours
lifting parsnips, then they pulled the turnips by hand! All produce was
loaded onto a lorry destined for the following morning’s market in
Covent Garden.

Thank you to Sara from farmingfriends who has joined with us to promote the Name the Tool Competition.
It is good to have another joint project along with the interblog leek growing project
Some of the interesting answers are listed below:

    * a soil aerator or an old fashioned pitch fork? farmingfriends
      

* for lifting onions ? oktarine
    * a hole maker for planting bulbs? Meg Wolff

    * It looks like my aerator but mine has a shorter handle and wider
      forks. Carver

    * a mushroom or garlic picker? Chris & Laurie
    * an aerator for use on a lawn or other compacted piece of ground?
      Alice

    * THIS IS MY PATCH  said “Are       you sure it isn’t just a broken fork …!!!”

    * John – Farmer giles from Farming Memories said, “Nearest that I can Guess
      is that it would be used for digging out Docks

    * for uprooting nettles? A nettle remover! farmingfriends
      

    * a potato digger? Jean

Thank you, again, to everyone who took part and also to the 94 year old
gardener who gave us the parsnip digger! We are proud that he considered
the parsnips in our vegetable garden worthy of such a tough tool!

click on the image to enlarge it

parsnip-in-ground

pushing-parsnip-digger-down

dug-parsnip

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