turnips and rutabagas

[littleminnie]

I grew Hakurei and Red Stems this year. They went over ok. My CSA newsletter that week was. "Bad News: the turnips are all gone. Good News: the turnips are all gone". ;D
The red stems look like a beet but are earlier so beet lovers can be coerced into buying them. Hakurei turnips have recipes all over the internet.

For regular turnips try braising. Put turnip chunks, broth, little sugar, salt or soy sauce in a pan and gently simmer until the liquid becomes a sauce.

I prefer rutabagas to turnips myself. I like them roasted with other roots or in New England boiled dinner or other soups and stews. Both turnips (neeps in Scotland) or rutabagas could be mashed with potatoes to make the Scottish Neeps and Tatties. A good way to make mashed potatoes more nutritious.

[throwback]

What I like about growing rutabaga is that the root maggots can't dent them as long as I plant on or around the solstice. I need row cover for radishes and turnips. I do however break my frugal rules and use row cover for succession planting Hakurei turnips.

Rutabagas stay in situ until bolting in the spring, and then we eat the tops - one of our survival foods. Maybe because most people wouldn't think of eating them

[steev]

I sure would! They're as tasty as the wild mustard I forage all winter.

[littleminnie]

I have heard people use wood ashes for root maggots.

[trixtrax]

Anyone have any seed of the Macomber turnip they'd be willing to trade for? I would love to do a seed increase on this variety!

[billw]

I have a rutabaga by that name - mostly white with green shoulders. Is that what you're wanting or is there also a turnip?

[trixtrax]

I think it is called rutabaga and sometimes turnip

[mountaindweller]

Great thread! No one likes turnips. When I lived in the city the woman at the farmers market said that this is what northern Germans buy, meaning not really edible. I will try some of the varieties mentioned, maybe they are better than the purple top whatever. They are so fast productive and trouble free it is really too much to asked that they taste great too. I am not after the greens I have enough greens!

[khoomeizhi]

i saw that wild garden seed has gilfeather turnip now...

[jondear]

Here in Maine swedes are a popular addition to new england boiled dinner. Laurentian is probably most common. I start mine about the 4th of July. I really like the salad turnip hakurei raw.

[billw]

Mar 12, 2014 3:54:58 GMT -5 mountaindweller said:

No one likes turnips.

I think that they have fallen out of the diet, at least in North America, to the extent that nobody knows what to do with them. I most often hear that people tried eating them raw. Some people really like raw turnip, but I don't think it is particularly memorable.

Historically, turnips were often eaten roasted with meat or cooked with lots of butter. Unsurprisingly, they taste pretty good that way. I find that lighter cooking methods benefit from smaller, narrower turnips. A full cross section of the turnip has a more balanced flavor than chunks of just the core. So, varieties that are more carrot-like in form tend to work better in modern cooking. We really like the Teltow and Pardailhan turnips for this reason. They are both narrow and optimally harvested while still relatively small. Many of the Asian turnips are meant to be used the same way. It has been a while, but I think a pretty good one that we tried was Hinona Kabu - I don't remember why I stopped growing it - it might have been a sterile hybrid.

[richardw]

For the first time ever i'm grew growing two Brassica napus napobrassica at the moment,i brought 'Champion Purple Top' and a white skin one that i cant remember its name,all these ended up rooting in the ground where the CPT grew very well yet they where planted along side.
Bill,you say they can be roasted which i think we will look to for eating this coming winter,probably add to soups as well i would imagine.

[steev]

I enjoy turnips as "punch nep" (mashed with spuds and butter), it's very light; bagas the same are also good, but more substantial; I value the greens of both; somewhat coarse, but nutritious and winter-hardy, also early to sprout from over-wintered roots; no scurvy, if you eat your greens, and your colon won't pack up (no small benefit!).

[toad]

Living north of northern Germany, I love turnips. I strongly prefer yellow cultivars harvested autumn and early winter. Eating them raw, my trick is to pull the thick skin off.
It's my impression, that the more to the north (and chilly and foggy), the sweeter and more succulent they taste.

[steev]

I would expect so; like many plants, even moderate heat makes them tougher and hotter; I could wish that Winter on the farm weren't so sunny and warm, too warm days for many cool-season plants, too cold nights for many warm-season plants.