Valentine's Day parsnip treat for Paul? (From The Northern Echo)

Valentine's Day parsnip treat for Paul?

12:50pm Tuesday 9th February 2010 in

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A STUDENT could be in for an extra special Valentine’s Day, after digging up what is thought to be the North-East’s biggest parsnip.

Paul Hennessy unearthed the monster in a vegetable plot at East Durham College’s Houghall campus, near Durham, where he is studying a Land Based Foundation (LBF) course.

The Romans believed parsnips to be a powerful aphrodisiac.

Mr Hennessy’s find weighed in at just under two kilograms (4.4lb).

He said: "When we sowed the parsnip seed I never thought it would get that big. I tried to pull it up and it was like something from the story about the giant turnip."

Tutor John O’Neil said in a lifetime working in horticulture he had never seen one so big.

"I have tried to grow show vegetables with LBF students in the past, but we have never grown such a large parsnip and we didn’t do anything special so it was quite a surprise."

Jemima Hichen(CORR), also a lecturer at the college, said: "It reminds me of the Cerne Abbas Giant (the giant naked man seen on the Dorset countryside, also known as the Rude Man or Rude Giant)."

The world’s biggest parsnip weighed nearly four kilograms (8.8lbs) and belonged to Norman Craven, of Ontario, Canada.

Mr Hennessy’s huge vegetable is the latest in a string of unusual events and finds at Houghall campus.

Last July, the flooded River Wear carved out a vast trench, which was dubbed the Grand Canyon of Durham.

When November rain filled the canyon, it became known as Durham’s Zambezi Rapids.

Developers have also unveiled plans for a world-first fantasy theme park on the site, to be known as Orcestrator; and college bosses recently resurrected a course in grave digging.