weekend at my grandparents ’ farm often included Saturday first light pancakes , blackberry break up , sportfishing … andturnipsnacks before bedtime . I was not the least bit insulted that while Grammy cut off slice of the blank and purple vegetable , she alternated between feed me and the hot dog .
Turnips have gone from being a common treat to mystifying the checkout girl at our local food market . I was reminded of those previous night turnips late as I began to ready for Halloween . It you have n’t already figured out , I ’m a flora geek . So while other parent happily lug home pumpkins for their kids to decorate , I seek to persuade mine to chip at turnips . Turnips were , after all , the original focus of theJack - o’-lanterntradition .
The history varies , as all story do . Jack either made a trade with the ogre never to take his soul or he escaped from the flaming pit . Either agency , because he match neither in the soil of the living nor beyond , he was doomed to travel the world face for a final resting place . He is say to have carved his preferent vegetable up and place a raging ember in it to manoeuver him through the dark .
Turnips ( Brassica rapa ) are important feature of many myths and tales around the world . The story of Jack first come along in Ireland some 300 eld ago . Irish mythology this fourth dimension of yr welcomes winter . What better veg to do that than a ancestor crop that suffice as an of import wintertime staple harvest , equal to of keeping well in moth-eaten memory ?
Turnips fell nicely into a one C - old custom of carving lanterns into vegetables for light owing to their sturdy nature . They also have an staggering leaning of benefit as food as well as medicine .
High in fiber , this full cousin tobroccoliis believed to lower the risk of digestive imbalance , some forms of cancer and high blood pressure . white turnip are packed with vitamin B , C and potassium .
Whether you roast turnips or just rust them raw , they are mild and delicious . Use the greens as well , so as to make use of every part of this readily usable veggie . originate them for yourself is easy . They mature in just two months so you may do multiple plantings . Turnips like full sun and acidulous , well - drained land . Like most of the other fellow member of this house , they like compost . Be indisputable to prey them well , but do n’t allow the soil to get boggy or they will molder . The best times to cull the roots are outflow and fall when small turnips are sweetened .
wintertime storage is sluttish , too . Either add a thick stratum of mulch over plants forget in the land or draw them , slay the greens and store in the icebox orroot root cellar .
It was n’t until the tradition of carve vegetable into lanterns came to the new world that the autumn pumpkin took the place of the turnip . The pumpkin is like the minor ’s animated version of an former fateful - and - white horror classic . in person , if you ’re go for chilling , I say carve a white turnip .
