Last year I planted my parsnip seeds really, really late. Like in July or something. And when I harvested the 'nips this is what I got:

Please notice how my kid is so not impressed.

This year, I decided to plant seeds a bit earlier, in February. However, I did not plant any parsnips. But they came up anyway- they are from last year, I presume- and I am excited to see what happens when I harvest them this fall. Any tips on what to look for regarding the timing of digging them up? I noticed that recently they threw out flowers and those flowers have now turned to seeds and those seeds seem to be falling off... does this mean more parsnips next year? Will I be inundated?

In Dutch "parsnip" is "pastinaak". And it is good to know that word because most people have not heard of parsnips here (except when you say "pastinaak" they look all glassy-eyed and say that indeed, that's an old vegetable, and can you even still buy such things?)