Pictured above: The straw keeps the ground warm enough for the parsnips to be harvested

Christmas dinner will be even sweeter this year thanks to the arctic conditions that gripped the country.

Farmers throughout the land have been worrying about their crops as temperatures fell to minus 15 and the snow continued to fall.

But one of the country's largest parsnip producers says the wintry conditions will have worked wonders for the parsnips served up as part of the traditional Christmas dinner - and is describing 2010 as a "vintage year".

The thing is that a hard frost improves the taste of parsnips, turning the starches to sugar and so making them taste so much sweeter.

"The ones we are now harvesting for sale in the run-up to the big day spent over two weeks in one of the hardest frosts we have encountered in years," said Rod Bartlett, who supplies Staffordshire Gold and Skipper parsnips from the Lichfield-area farms he runs with his dad Roy.

The problem many vegetable growers are facing  is not being able to get to their crops because of the icy conditions - but the use of over 25,000 bails of straw on land at Whittington and Shenstone, have meant  that Rod and Roy have not missed a day of  harvesting, despite the weather.

"We laid the first lot of straw at the beginning of November, before we were hit by the first big freeze. That meant the straw kept the ground warmer and we could harvest on it while other growers had to wait for a thaw.

"As soon as the thaw came we covered more parsnips with straw and then when this last batch of weather arrived we had enough land under cover to allow us to keep going all over the Christmas period.

"It has been tough work but I can guarantee people that the parsnips we are sending out for sale this week will be amongst the best they have ever tasted," said Roy.