Funny thing is that there are differences in the names of things, or even the existence of them.
I always used to avoid journeys at the weekend, had too many other things to do plus, in those days, I used to use our own Sunday market.
But one weekend due to special circumstances or urgency I found myself returning from the north on a Sunday. Knowing that we needed veg at home I came upon a large street market somewhere to the south of Rouen. Well pleased I parked up and proceded to buy everything I needed, except parsnips. Not only could the man not understand the word ‘parnais’, even when written down, but he couldn’t even supply a local substitute for the word from my elaborate description of looking like a white carrot.
Had exactly the same experience in the hairdressers before Christmas. I was telling my hairdresser what I would be cooking for Christmas Day lunch. Even though the parnais were to be found in the veg racks of Leclerc just across the entrance hall from the hairdresser she had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. Saying it was like a white carrot only lead her to offering the word navet, as you say, a turnip.
Thinking about it I fancy that I later heard that in some places parsnips were only considered fit to feed to pigs. Perhaps if we had dropped to all fours and started oinking.
During the war I was told - all there was to eat in rural communities. so became an animal foodstuff after the war and was distained. In the fifteen years we’ve been here they have moved from being totally unavailable except in a few markets where the Brits shop to stocked every large supermarket I’m pleased to say. We love them. especially mashed with curry spices and some sour cream.
Fresh yellow corncobs are what I miss in summer, the fields around here are full of white corn, grown for biofuel or winter cattlefeed; unlike the SE, one never sees fresh white or yellow corn on our local markets. Tried growing yellow corn last summer, but it got frazzled; will try again this year in a more shaded part of the garden.
Instead have had to make do with OH’s corn field paintings
People are absolutely right to say they were only considered fit for animal food. We always had to grow them ourselves until they started appearing on vegetable stalls relatively recently. Navets, now, those really are animal food
Turnips, parsnips and all root veg… I reckon they taste best when smallish and straight from the ground (more or less). Thus local produce is what I choose… and this can be bought direct from the market gardener, or at the local markets.
Our Saturday market is still thriving, although not with the “touristy” stuff which comes along in the summer season.
French pronunciation is very hard for me and not living in France, I don’t get to hear a lot of spoken French. When I need to know how something is pronounced by actual French people, I go to forvo.com, which I may have mentioned here before.
There are two pronunciations of panais on forvo. I am now prepared to ask for panais in a market next time I am in France, except for the fact that I actually don’t want to buy any.
On the market, I try to use southern French pronunciation if buying meat or veg (particularly from the Catalan types - love the way they pronounce things like cinquante with a flourish at the end rather than silently swallowing it - chin quant teeeh!
Similalry most of our neighbours use the Occitan pronounciation of our village, where the final syllable of each word in the two or three word name has a hard ending that is most emphasised.
Are we talking potatoes or something more exotic? Certainly I’d never before thought about the availability or otherwise of Jersey Royals in France- but on reflection, I don’t think they’d make it all the way down here, probably get scoffed en route by those apparently excellent folk in Normandie
Sounds like tne situation with chestnut (castagno) in Italy. In tbe past it was all people had to eat, so delicious as chestnut can be a lot of Italians link it with poverty and hardship - so won’t use it.
Our stretch of the Lot Valley is known as la chataignerie on account of its extensive terraced chestnut forests, which date at least from mediaeval times. We have chestnut fetes etc but the flour isn’t cheap. As far as I understand until less than a century ago it was the staple starch crop - also used to feed tthe pigs that sadly no longer live in the forest - presumably driven out by sanglier
