18 December, 2007 
I decided to make a large batch of soup for dinner, so I went foraging in the hayshed and the vegetable patch for ingredients. After collecting some stored potatoes and onions from the bins in the hayshed, I went through to the vegetable patch, raked aside the straw and started feeling for carrot tops (it was after dark). I found a likely candidate and, to use a phrase from one of the boys’ favourite books, I tugged and heaved and yanked until “pop” the carrot came out. It felt particularly heavy and large, so after picking a further two carrots I brought it inside. It’s a monster – the two normal carrots are about six inches long and 1.5 inches across, but it dwarfs them. For carrot aficionadoes, it’s a James Scarlet and it was delicious diced into the soup.
You are not in competition with Hedgewizards parsnips are you?
Such a boy thing; my root vegetables is bigger than your root vegetable
You don’t really want me to get my parsnip out, do you?
When the big lad and I were looking we saw some that looked rather large.