By Andrea Yoder
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| Rutabagas |
Winter can be a challenging time to eat seasonally and locally for many in the upper Midwest and sometimes we have to think “outside the box” as we get creative with preparing storage vegetables until spring returns. Root vegetables such as celeriac, turnips and rutabagas often get a bad wrap, and honestly—most of the time it’s because someone is intimidated by them, doesn’t have a clue what to do with them, or has had a bad experience with them (….as in their mother or grandmother served them overcooked vegetables!!!!). So this week, we’re going to bring two of these often underappreciated roots out of the shadows and give them a brief moment of fame. Let me introduce you to the stars of this week’s show---Rutabagas and Turnips!
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| Gold Turnips, Sweet Scarlet Turnips, and Purple Top Turnips |
I asked Richard how long he’s been growing rutabagas and turnips. His reply, “Almost forever!” His earliest memories of these vegetables goes back to his Grandpa Nick who grew them in his garden, both to feed his family as well as his animals through the winter. Even though we grow these every year, we’ve tried to limit the number of storage turnips and rutabagas we’ve included in late season boxes. In fact, many years we haven’t even put rutabagas in the box and still we have people tell us in end of the season surveys that they “got too many rutabagas!” Perhaps they are confusing rutabagas and turnips or maybe they just haven’t been able to surmount that hurdle of “What the heck do I do with these roots?!” Friends, I hope you’ll trust me on this and know that both of these humble vegetables have and deserve a place on our tables this winter, just as they’ve graced the tables of our ancestors for hundreds of years before us! Both rutabagas and turnips have a long history in the culture of peoples from northern regions such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Scotland, Ireland, and northern Asia. This is because both of these vegetables grow well in regions with a colder climate where other crops can’t be produced.
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| Hand-harvesting rutabagas on a sunny fall day |
Consider what it was like to live in a time where you had to eat what you could grow because transportation just wasn’t available. It’s too cold to grow bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes and even some grains, but you can grow potatoes, carrots, cabbage, turnips, rutabagas. Now it makes more sense why some of these root vegetables became such an integral part of these cultures! In Norway the nickname for rutabagas is “Nordens Oransje” which means, “Orange of the North.” This brings up another important point about these roots. It’s not just that they are able to be grown in these areas, they also provide valuable energy, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that our bodies need to stay healthy over the winter. As the nickname indicates, rutabagas are actually a pretty good source of vitamin C. Of course, I should mention that both rutabagas and turnips are members of the brassica family which is known to be a family of important foods that provide us with antioxidants and other phytochemicals that build up our immune systems, prevent cancer and protect our bodies in many other ways. So it seems, nature does provide us with the foods we need. Now it’s our job to embrace them!
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| Scarlet turnips as far as you can see! |
In Scotland rutabagas are called “neeps,” while in Ireland rutabagas are called “turnips” and the English seem to follow the lead from Sweden and call them “swedes.” As you can see, turnips and rutabagas are often confused. Rutabagas are a buttercream yellow with purple shoulders. They are often on the larger size growing anywhere from 5-7 inches in diameter, or bigger! The ones in your box this week are on the small side and, while not necessarily good for yields and profitability, you will find them more manageable to work with. Rutabagas have more of a pointy bottom on the root end and often have a Dr. Seuss like stem, although we often trim away most of the stem so all you see is the stem stump on top. Turnips on the other hand are more rounded, or more of a flattened round shape. The traditional storage turnip is a purple top turnip that has a white bottom with purple shoulders.
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Rutabaga leaves--seldom eaten by people,
but excellent forage for animals! |
See why it’s easy to confuse them with rutabagas? In addition to purple top turnips, we also grow golden and sweet scarlet turnips. All three of these varieties store very well, but we think the flavor is different amongst these three and we tend to favor the golden and sweet scarlet varieties. However, it’s important to note that, as with many other vegetables in the Brassica family, the flavor of the vegetable is significantly impacted by exposure to cold. The turnips and rutabagas we harvest early in the fall before we’ve had frost are not as sweet and mild as those harvested after a few chilly nights. The other factor that affects taste is how you cook them. If I were allowed to have only one pet peeve in the world, it would be “Do Not Overcook Brassicas!” Turnips and rutabagas need to breath, so when you’re cooking them either leave the lid off or at least open it up a bit. If you don’t, all of those sulfur containing phytochemicals which make these vegetables so darn healthy for us will volatilize, build up in the steam and get trapped in the pot. When you remove the lid, WHOOEEEE they do NOT smell good! Many a grandmother and mother of the past have subjected their families to boiled turnips and rutabagas that simmered away in a big pot on the stove, covered, for hours filling the whole house with their stench. No one wants to sit down to the table to eat overcooked vegetables. Just don’t do it, ok?
Turnips and rutabagas have also been known as “peasant food” or “animal fodder.” Now, would you rather eat something with the reputation as being good enough to feed the peasants and animals or something fit for a king? Well, actually I think it’s a testament to the vegetable that it’s versatile enough to feed both a human and an animal. Furthermore, farmers often used these vegetables as feed as well as forage crops (letting the animals graze and eat the green tops) because they were a valuable source of nutrition in the days before hybrid grain varieties were available. Prior to these hybrid varieties, corn and other grains couldn’t always be grown in some of these northern climates because the growing season wasn’t long enough. Additionally, turnips and rutabagas could be stored and fed to the animals all winter! In addition to his memories of Grandpa Nick, Richard also remembers seeing bunker silos full of root vegetables being stored as winter animal feed when he visited Europe. Once we had cheap grain available, these crops fell out of favor for use with animals. So it has nothing to do with the fact that the rutabaga or turnip is a crop of lesser value and thus was fed to the animals or lower rungs of society.
Ok, two fun facts before we wrap up. Did you know there is a festival called Räbeliechtli that is celebrated in German speaking regions throughout Switzerland? This word comes from “rabe” meaning turnip and “liecht” meaning light. It’s celebrated in early November and includes a procession or parade at night in the dark in which children carry lanterns carved from turnips! So if you really can’t find anything to make with a turnip or a rutabaga, at least turn it into a fun, creative project and carve it into a lantern.
Here’s how!
The other fun fact I want to share with you is that there is actually a sporting event held in celebration of the rutabaga. That’s right, there is an International Rutabaga Curling Championship held in Ithaca, New York every year towards the end of December at the Ithaca Farmers’ Market. The event is open to both amateurs and professionals and, according to this
website, ‘Preparation is crucial. “Athletes must prepare by sending positive vibes to the Gods of Rutabagas. First-time spectators cannot possibly be prepared for this event.”’ I know we have some CSA members with ties to Ithaca as well as the sport of curling (Kathy P, I’m looking at you). If anyone has ever attended or participated in this event, I want to know about it!
I really hope you’ll give these humble vegetables a chance this winter. While they are seldom the focus of a dish, they can easily be incorporated into many tasty dishes that will nourish your body and keep you well throughout the winter. I haven’t told you much about cooking them yet, but that information can be found in this week’s “What’s In the Box” newsletter which features rutabagas. Congratulations Friend, you’ve made it to the end of the season!
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