Trying Turnips

I get sucked into the "exotic" garden produce I see on television cooking shows. Like root vegetables. Granted, as a kid most of our garden-produced vegetables were probably blanched, frozen, and then reheated in the microwave before being finished with a pat of butter and a little salt and/or pepper. Obviously potatoes and squash didn't go this route, but this was the case for green beans, English peas, sweet corn, kohlrabi, beets, and a few others well suited for this type of food preservation.

So imagine my fascination when I see things like parsnips, rutabagas, and turnips appearing in various baked and mashed root vegetable concoctions. Between the camera angles and the hosts' descriptions of the final dish, I was sucked in. And then I see them in the seed catalogs and even my handy ACES Vegetable Planting Guide - I can grow them down here!

After careful planning and selection based on available space, growing days available, and my own curiosity, I dutifully planted carrots, parsnips, and turnips for my fall root vegetables.

My first clue that maybe I should have reconsidered was when my friend's dad asked what they were, and said he had only heard of Southerners growing turnips for the greens. (For the record, I can't stand any type of traditional Southern "greens" whether they be collards or otherwise.)

My second clue was one of my online friends commenting that turnips were an "old person's food" and even though her family was often planting heirloom and heritage crops, they never planted turnips.

Then came the day that the turnips were big enough to begin harvesting.

First I tried them roasted. I scrubbed and cubed them, tossed them with olive oil, herbs, and kosher salt, and set them in the oven at 450 degrees until they were browning on the edges.

Though they had a pleasant aroma, the flavor was decidedly not. I can't quite describe it. I choked down about half of the final product and tossed the rest.

So I set out to begin exploring all of these great turnip recipes I had seen on television. Scalloped, mashed, pureed, I was determined to try several to see if it was just the way I had made it. I saw most recipes called for boiling the turnips in milk or using a milk-based white sauce.

I tried a recipe from a never-failed-me-before website. There was more dairy than turnips in the finished product.

Turnip gratin

Again, though it smelled wonderful, I could only handle a few forkfuls. The slices of turnip ended up just a carrier for the delicious melted cheese and white sauce.

I promptly pulled out the remaining turnips and threw them on the compost bin.