Appalachia Through My Eyes - Turnips

 

If you guessed yesterday's mystery photo was a turnip-you were right. (you can see the photo from yesterday-unaltered-below)

Somehow I missed harvesting a whole row of turnips from my fall garden. As I walked back from Granny and Pap's I noticed something green and spry looking back there in the garden-once I went to investigate I found the turnips.

My favorite way to eat turnips is raw-sliced and sprinkled with salt-like in the photo above. Granny stews her turnips-sometimes with the greens-sometimes by themselves like potatoes.

I know Patti and her family make turnip kruat each year-that makes me wonder if turnip slaw would be good?

How do you eat turnips?

Tipper

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Comments

[danny]

turnip soup and corn bread and fresh cows milkmmmm

[warren]

My favorite way to eat the is raw with salt. That's how I ate them with my grandpa. My people still grind them up and add them to mashed potatoes. I am not a huge fan of that but they love them

[susie swanson]

Like you I eat them raw but my Dad and Mom liked theirs stewed.. They also like parsnips.. I can't stand those things..

[Bob Humphreys]

my wife from West Virginia has eaten raw turnips as a child, she doesn't eat them much anymore, however she does like to cook a rudabaga (or hanover as her Mother used to call them). I eat them on occasion but don't make it a habit.

Bob H

[Sandy Wilson]

I love them cooked. I cook them and add a little bacon grease. When they are teder, add a little sugar. Serve. That's the way my mom always cooked them.

[janet pressley]

I was going to say turnip, but Papaw would not verify it. Nana

[cloudia]

love us some Daikon radish sliced and sprinkled with sea salt. . .

Aloha from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral

>
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[Ed Myers]

I eat them like you, Tipper. To me, turnips are the complete vegetable: roots and greens, if not necessarily what remains in-between. I've even had turnip desert, which was not bad if the alternative is pure sugar.

To beet lovers out there, don't forget their greens, among the finest that can be had and far superior to spinach (although I like that too).

As with you and turnips, I took a stroll around the garden the other day and found several spinach plants planted last fall. No more store bought for me, at least until these are exhausted.

[Anastasia]

In Cyprus we love turnips raw - sliced in a salad - but I also like to bake them whole with some olive oil and/or oregano.

[Anne]

Tipper..you are a whiz with your camera..You capture the simplest items that most people would miss, but you turn them into treasures...There is Nothing more Sutthern than a pot of turnip greens, maybe mixed with some mustard greens, too, simmered with ham hock, Plus plenty of the roots chopped up. Add a pan of cornbread, baked sweet potatoes, a pitcher sized glass of iced tea, and that is a Feast!

In South Mississippi, greens and roots were a staple of fall meals.
We also had ate lots of collards (best after a freeze) and kale and tender greens (like young turnips)..

When we moved to Louisiana, found out that nearly Nobody eats the greens OR the roots..Pity..Our son's wife is from Iowa..She had never heard of anyone eating the greens. They only ate the roots mashed like potatoes, and the greens, they fed to the pigs.

Another way we love the roots is to smother them with pork chops and apples..I know it sounds strange, but it is delicious..

Like so many of you, I love them raw, sliced with a bit of salt-they have a 'bite' like radish.

Oh my, I hope we never lose the taste for the old fashioned foods.

[Darlene LaRoche]

oops , I guessed a beet...lol Turnips are good also.Most veggies are, the only problem I have is that I have developed food allergies the past 5 years, and most of the good things I ate growing up I can't have anymore, such as beans, corn, I can't believe I can't have soup beand, green beans, pickled corn, fried corn,grew up with those, I really miss being able to have them. Oh, well, it could be worse, at least I can have beets and turnips...lol

[Ken]

Tipper,
I've never acquired a taste for
turnips, period. But I do love the
greens (in a can) fixed with pinto
beans and stewed taters. And if
there ain't no cornbread it just
spoils the whole meal...Ken

[Mike McLain]

I prefer raw if they are fairly small. I used to help dig them up and if I dug up one that happened to be about 2 inches or so in diameter, out came my pocket knife and that turnip was a goner! Such a sweet little snack!

[Osagebluffquilter]

Thanks for the shout out! I do have a friend that makes turnip slaw. She said she uses the same dressing as she does for cabbage. I really need to try it. I still have a small stash of turnips in in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator. They probably have lots of miles on them with that drawer going in and out!

[sandra]

chop the roots up and put in the greens with fat back and yum yum... love the greens love the turnip and i also like to eat them raw.

[Uncle Al]

Turnip greens & turnips with cornbread. Can you say "YUM" ?

[Becky]

I like them the same way you do. I can remember the first time I tasted a turnip. I was sitting on the back stoop of my grandma's house with my dad as he was slicing one. As he perpared that turnip he talked about how good they were and had my mouth watering for one by the time he handed me a slice to try. I've loved them raw ever since.

[Jim Casada]

Tipper—A raw turnip was one of my four favored snacks, as a boy, during the fall. I went squirrel hunting virtually every day after school. I would rush home, change into my Duxbak clothing (no longer made, but great stuff and I bet some of your older readers remember it), grab a snack, and head to the woods. My snacks were an apple from Dad’s little orchard, a raw onion, a cold sweet potato, or a raw turnip. The turnip and onion would be accompanied by a chunk of cold cornbread.
I think you might be on to something with turnip slaw, although I would suggest mixing raw turnip and cabbage. Another thought (and I haven’t tried it) would be to use chunks of raw turnip to dip just like you do radishes, carrots, and celery sticks. I’ve got to try it, although I’m mighty partial to stewed turnips cooked with a piece of streaked meat.
Jim Casada
www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com

[Ethel]

I have never eaten a turnip. Maybe it's time to broaden my horizons!

[dbarton954@aol.com]

You got me on that one! I cook turnips whenever I make a turkey and I also put them in homemade soup.

[B. Ruth]

Tipper,
and turnip...sorry I misdiagnosed you as an onion...Those green looking stalks without the ruffled leaves threw me totally off...
This is so wild, as we had cooked turnips the very day you posted this one...As always before we ate our mashed turnips (done like creamed potatoes) we sliced a couple and ate them with the dreaded salt...so good frash and cold from the garden..
Our turnips have done great this year eventhough large they are still good and not peathy....
A dieters friend excepting for the salt...LOL
My husband craves them during this Chemo..says a sliced raw turnip with salt stays the nausea...not me they always give me a little heartburn but I love them anyhow...
Thanks Tipper,
Definitly a great job on the altered photo...LOL

[Bill Burnett]

I love turnips cooked in with the greens, cooked by themselves but like you my favorite by far is raw, sliced and with a little salt. Getting off the subject this is also my favorite was to eat Irish (Arsh) Potatoes also. In fact a potato, a couple of turnips all three peeled, sliced a little salt and a glass of un-sweetened tea constitute a meal many days when I'm busy with some project.

[Garland Davis]

My wife is Japanese. She makes pickled turnips. I love them this way.

[Miss Cindy]

A turnip, well, well! I've made turnip slaw, it's pretty good but I think cabbage is better.
Tipper, i like raw turnips too, even better than cooked. I think it's because they are so crisp when they are raw and so soggy when they are cooked.
Pickled turnips are good too but you have to eat them within a week or two or they get soft.

[Charlotte]

After seeing what I thought were roots, I guessed a turnip; At first glance I thought it was a tomato that had been skipped. I'm the only one in my family who will eat turnips. I like them raw or stewed, but only fix them when I'm eating alone.

[Tanya]

my favorite way is like you, raw with salt....they always remind me of a good friend of mine back when we were kids. she had this joke about the 3 vegetables: lettuce, turnip and pea....if you say it all together in a sentence like.....yeah, you get it lol...i never fully understood it the way it would make her bust out laughing everytime she told it ha! but now when i pick out my veggies, that always runs through my head!

[Steve]

I try not to eat turnips, but my mother ate them like an apple. One of the ladies at church told me I had to grow some for her this year, so we will see.

[Canned Quilter]

Sometimes I cook them with the greens and sometimes I eat them in a casserole scalloped.

[Ed Ammons]

I was favoring the turnip then at the last minute voted onion. I just couldn't believe a turnip could be that perfectly spherical. Today's picture proved me wrong. So, what's new, you ask!
Does that I'm not in the running for for the prize?

[Bernadette]

Wow didn't see a turnip in yesterday's picture, maybe I was just hungry for fresh red beets. Love and grow turnips, too, and eat them sliced raw with salt and pepper.

[Patty Hall]

love roasted turnips! Never tried them raw.

[Marianne]

Hmm turnip slaw sounds interesting for sure! I usually do the same as Granny and stew them, I do love to add the greens though. I'm not much of a kruat person, but I bet my son would give that a try. Have a wonderful Sunday, it's a wet one for sure, need the rain, but sure do miss the sunshine!

[Sheryl Paul]

Kinda looks like a beet with the color altered. :)

[Bill Dotson]

Tipper I eat a lot of turnip soup myself but my wife won't try it but she will eat turnips fried like you would potatoes, also I make my soup just like I make potato soup.

[Kimberly]

I LOVE raw turnips! I also like to slice them up with potatoes and parsnips, add some salt and butter and boil them until done. YUM! The flavor of all three together is great.