If you love turnips, get in line! The sturdy turnip is a member of the brassica family, related to radishes, and it started its horticultural history thousands of years ago in Asia and Europe, even reaching Japan. In time, it became a staple in the new world. No doubt it was popular for a number of reasons: it kept well, it could stand colder weather, and it could be used to feed not only the farmer but his valued livestock as well.
For gardeners, turnips like cooler weather, just like their cousins the radishes and cabbages. Those cool temps make the turnip sweeter. Let’s pretend it’s spring. We get the veggie bed ready to be planted, rake it to smooth it out, then make a row to plant our turnips. Plant them about half an inch deep and not too thick. They like a location with full sun. Water them in, mark the rows, and hopefully in about 50 days we can start to enjoy our turnips. And guess what, if we start another row in a week or ten days, these later turnips will be ready by fall and these are the ones we can use over winter.
Here’s an interesting experiment, if you want a gardening challenge. If we wanted to have our turnips produce seeds, it’s a two year process. Yes, they are biennials, which mean they take two years to grow, get big and strong, and finally produce seeds in their second year. So to enable our turnips to go the distance, we’d have to pull the turnips out in the fall, store them over winter, then plant them back in the ground in the spring.
Now: guess what “neeps” are? They’re the smaller, white and purple turnips, with lighter flesh. (If we were in beautiful Scotland, we could enjoy “neeps and tatties”, turnips and potatoes). Guess what “swedes” are? They are Swedish turnips, and are the larger, thicker fleshed yellow turnips. And here in North America, the big turnips are also known as “rutabagas”.
Turnips are not only delicious ( yummy, please pass the butter and lots of pepper!) but they are good for us, too, since they are full of vitamins, full of fibre, and even have omega 3 fatty acids and protein. They are extremely versatile, because we can eat them steamed, baked, mashed, grated, cooked or raw! And they are a beautiful vegetable: Sweet Pea always used to say that we “eat with the eyes first”, and on a chilly fall day, a pile of steaming mashed rutabagas on a dinner plate, with a rivulet of butter and a generous sprinkle of pepper is wonderful comfort food!
But now…dim the lights and gather round…with Halloween just days away, let’s go back, back in time to beautiful Ireland where Halloween began…where turnips were carved the way we now carve pumpkins. The carved turnips were hollowed out and a light was placed inside to chase away any naughty goblins that might be lurking around. Keep that in mind if you are decorating the area around your front door: the turnips would look beautiful in a display with cheery bright orange pumpkins, and very welcoming to any little goblins that might come to call on Halloween!
Visit the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society at www.yorktonhort.ca and see what’s new. There are still has no meetings planned; but visit us at our website and we’ll keep you posted on gardening news!
Thank you to our friends at Yorkton This Week, keep up the wonderful work! Let’s pray for health for all, and brighter times ahead. Happy Halloween, and Happy Birthday, Keith!
