Availability, Nutrition, and Recipe Suggestions
In Season: October into November (and sometimes into December)
Storage: Purple Top Turnips are best kept in the fridge, inside a plastic bag.
Preservation: Turnips are a commonly stored root vegetable, for the home gardener with heaps to store away Modern Farmer has a thorough “how-to” guide posted online.
Production Notes: Purple Top Turnips are grown from seed, sown throughout the month of August. They grow for about 2 months before reaching maturity in the fall. Depending on the time of the season, we will occasionally bunch their greens for folks… Broccoli Raab aka Rapini are quite similar to turnip greens and are a suitable substitute in the kitchen.
Varieties: In addition to Purple Top Turnips, we also grow Hakurei Salad Turnips (typically enjoyed raw) and the locally famous Macomber Turnip. Some years we also plant Rutabaga which are a sweeter cousin of the purple top turnips though they take longer to grow, ideally seeded in early August for full sized Rutabaga.
Nutrition: Turnips greens are loaded with Vitamin K and are also a good source of vitamin C [WHFoods.com].
Deep Nutrition: Similar to Radishes, Turnips (along with other brassicas) contains Glucosinolates, sulfur compounds, which may aid in cancer prevention.
Preparation: Give the roots a good scrubbing to remove any dirt. Cut to appropriate size for your recipe, while traditionally turnips are enjoyed cooked you may eat turnips raw, for a real treat enjoy our Hakurei Salad Turnips which are prized for their raw flavor.
Turnips are well matched for the “oven season”.
These are just a few ideas to help get you started. Enjoy!
Updated November 2019