Seasonality

Varieties

White and purple turnips
Red Viking Turnips with Greens

Varieties we grow and love:

  • Hakurei- white salad turnips, sweet, fruity, crisp and perfect raw
  • Scarlet Queen- red salad turnips, beautiful white flesh, sweet and spicy
  • Purple Top- classic purple shoulders, white below the soil line, best cooked

Storage

As always, fresh produce is most delicious and nutritious when consumed as close to the harvest date as possible.

The saladette turnips do not store for too long. Be sure to remove green tops, if there are any, and store them separately because the greens will sap the roots for water. Wrap the greens in plastic and they will be fine for a couple days. The roots will keep for over week with no trouble.

The Purple Tops will keep much longer. Again, be sure to remove the greens if there are any and store separately. They will keep for several days in the fridge. The roots will keep for months in cold storage, so no worries if you are starting a collection in your crisper. Sometimes you may see little white hairs forming on hte ends of the turnips, especially after a while in plastic. This is fine and will wash of or be removed when you cut off the actual root end.

Keep all in the coldest part of the fridge for maximum storage

Culinary Info

– can be enjoyed in:

  • salads
  • slaw
  • roasted
  • boiled and mashed
  • pickles

Tips for preparing:

Again, be sure to separate the bottoms from tops. Clean the tops by holding the stems and plunging the leafy tops up and down in cold water.
Clean the root by trimming the top and bottom – sometimes a good rinse is all you need, other times (especially with the Purple Tops) a scrub brush in order. No need to peel, unless you find yourself in winter with tough skins on the Purple. A regular vegetable peeler will do nicely 🙂

All the turnips are delicious roasted! Simply cube or wedge (in the case of the salad turnips), toss with olive oil or other oil of choice, sprinkle with S&P, roast in glass dish if you have one, or any pan will do, 400 degrees until tender (about 15 minutes)

 

Also check out these great recipes:

Slaw, Classic or Signature?