Yup. Eggplant. And I hate turnips too, so I've never bothered growing them.

Sigh...if only I could grow beer and smokes...

Awwwaaa. I love turnips. I especially like turnip greens. They're the best. Scrumptious.

Jim

Radishes. Easy to grow, but . . .
Mustard.
Celery. Well, I like celery--the problem was that we let it get way too woody and fibrous to be edible.

I find turnips to be very mild tasting... ?? If you want to experiment try making them au gratin, like you would potatos. Or, next time you make soup, put a little to the side and add some chopped turnip and see if you like them that way. The greens are good cooked with garlic and onion and served with hot sauce.

Sorry, just hate to see you throw them out after just one try, LOL. I get it if you don't want to, though.

I'll have to get back with you guys after I harvest the celeriac this fall. Incidentally, booberry was my dad's nickname for me when I was little and my name is Rebekah!

I love turnip greens. My grandmother used to cook turnip greens with fresh pork, pig tails mostly, when pigs had tails! She cooked collards with cured pork. They were good but I prefer cured pork cooked in both turnips greens and collards. Don't care much for the turnip roots unless cooked in with the greens.

Habanero peppers...too hot for me and so wasn't worth wasting the space. Much prefer cayenne peppers.

IMHO - turnips are best eaten mashed. Mix 1/2 turnip, 1/2 carrot - mash them with butter and S&P. Some people add cinnamon or brown sugar. I liked to add a little mashed potato to it to hold it all together. This is a family tradition on turkey days. Yummy!

Wow Reba! What amazing coincidences!

Think I'll try turnip greens next.

Becky

I plan on growing turnips this fall. I've never had one but I was told they are good slow roasted with other root veggies.

Sounds good to me.

booberry -- if you're gonna try cooking the greens please realize that to get them nice and tender takes cooking for a looong time, like bring to a boil, then simmer for a couple of hours or so on the stove. Some varieties of turnip don't have the best greens, either. There is a 'seven top' that has no bulbous root, it's a variety grown just for the greens, IMO much better than eating the greens of the rooted kind.

But I did learn the value of trying stuff first before I grew it 2 years ago. Grew this chinese cabbage that was gross. (well, we thought so)...

A 50/50 mix of small diced carrot and turnip, steamed and seasoned with S&P and butter is very good.

Jim

I chop one small turnip and put it in my beef stew. It enhances the flavor. Too much, though, and the kids don't like it.

Yummy. Roasted like potatoes. Just slice them lengthwise, kind of like french fries, and roast in hot oven. Tasty.

The French are big on pureed turnips. You can sauce them with gravy. I like them that way. I also like a couple of turnips in stew or vegetable beef soup, but as was stated, not too many. Young turnips can be sliced thinly and put into salads. Greens need to be washed really well to make sure no dirt/grit is left on the leaves. I like the turnips better than the greens, but I make use of everything. I do some vegetable juicing. I put greens into the juicer.

Lorna

Oh, please don't throw them on the compost.
If you find you've grown something you really don't like or won't eat, why not offer them to the nearest food pantry or homeless shelter? I'm sure they'd be happy to have them, especially now that the food pantries are being stretched to their limits and a lot of the shelves are getting pretty bare.
That's where our exrta veg goes every year after I've canned and frozen as much as I think we'll need to get through the winter. You can even grow veg for that reason with free seed.
:)
Oh, and please don't be disappointed if they sometimes won't accept it - each place has different needs at different times. But, with the situation the way it is this year, I'm sure they'd be more than pleased with the generosity! You can always call ahead and ask.

Here is a link that might be useful: Free Seed To Plant A Row For The Hungry

dirtdauberz5mo, are you serious about cooking them for hours!? I steam mine for five minutes and they are great, but maybe my variety is better suited for it (Tokyo Cross).

Tokyo Cross is a great mild tunrip. I prefer turnips to be roasted. Don't let them endure hot weather either or get too big or they get bitter.

Sewobsessed wrote:

"If you find you've grown something you really don't like or won't eat, why not offer them to the nearest food pantry or homeless shelter?"

Agreed! I give any excess to the local Senior Center and they're more than happy to get them.

Wild_forager,

DirtdauberZ5mo must have some kinfolk from Georgia :~). The turnip greens my Mom and Dad grew were simmered along with pieces of salt pork for a couple hours or so. They were really good (Southern Style), always served with cornbread and probably not as bad for you as we were brought to think because of the "fat" added to them. I can't remember a time in my life that I didn't love my Mom's turnip greens and cornbread.

I don't grow turnip greens myself, my husband prefers mustard greens, kale and chard. Sometimes I buy turnips to add to potato soup which is really good in cool weather.

Dirtdauber, I grew some Chinese Cabbage last year. It was awful taste and texture. I threw the remaining seeds away so I wouldn't be tempted to see if it was just a mistake...

Not Georgia, Tennessee! I've been transplanted into Missouri. And yes, we cook 'em for hours, but like I said, it is the 'Seven Top' variety. I've never heard of Tokyo Cross. Wouldn't mind trying it, where'd you get the seeds?
We plant them as a fall crop, they always taste better after a light frost hits them in October. Gives them just the right zip, cooked with bacon and served over cornbread. (the kind made with NO SUGAR in it!!) :)

dirtdauberz,

I got my Tokyo Cross from Burpee. It's a cross between a japanaese variety and something else... They stay small, harvested about the size of a golfball. Some people even eat them raw because they are tender and sweet. I think their small size goes a long way towards that. I find the greens to be of good quality, though I haven't really tried any other turnip greens.

holly-2006: Yeah, if we only could grow beer & smokes...heck, I wouldn't have room in may garden for anything else! ;) Yeah, I have 20 rows of beer & 10 rows of smokes.

Hey, tnvegiegardner, holly - move next door to me on each side and plant your beer ~~ then you guys can split all my slugs ~~~ lol :):)

DirtdauberZ5MO, So you were born in Tennessee. I grew up in N. Georgia, about 37 miles from the Tennessee border. A very pretty part of the country, but of course I am biased.

Sugar in cornbread! Who would do such a thing... :~)

Raw turnips are good, if picked small before they get woody, peeled, and maybe sprinkled with a bit of salt. Cooked turnips are nasty. Probably even deep-fried turnips with ketchup and Tabasco are nasty, and what's not good deep-fried with ketchup and Tabasco? But I don't know that for a fact.

I sure do like raw turnips, though.

I could not stand turnips until I had a small raw white turnip in March that was very sweet, tender and tasty. It completely changed my way of thinking on turnips. Since then I found out it was a variety called Hakurei, bought seeds and have already harvested about 100 that my wife & I have eaten raw with salads. Great stuff that I recommend to anyone who thinks they don't like turnips.

Jeff

Thanks for this thread, booberry. I now have two new turnip varieties to try, Hakurei and Tokyo Cross. And all because you don't like them! ;) New recipes as well ~~ (deep fried w/ ketchup and Tabasco --- eeeuuuwww) !!
yea opal, I grew up in Nashville. Sure miss the deeper green and 'just a bit milder' winters.

Never order cornbread in a restaurant north of Kentucky or west of the Mississippi....

Oh, goodness, radishes. That's what we're growing and are just pure yuck. I've got a ton to pull this weekend and might as well give them away!

I've not tried turnip yet, but I hear that mixing them with carrots (as others have said) and apples make them delectable.

My favorite turnip green variety is "Just Right", a Japanese variety. It doesn't have a good germination rate though. It also has mild white roots, but I don't like the roots and just throw them away or give them away. The only way I've ever eaten the roots to where I actually liked them, was my mother-in-law used to sometimes take the really small ones, 1" or less diameter, and cook them in with boiled cabbage which sweetened them. Some of the recipes you guys/gals have shared though sounds good, so I think I might keep some to try this year.

Speaking of planting things that you've never tried only to find you don't like them--I've had just the opposite experience. I planted things that I didn't like (such as yellow squash,zucchini & spinach because everyone said they were a good beginner plant) and after experimenting with different recipes found ways to eat them that I enjoyed. So what if the recipe you tried doesn't work out, the vegetables were free--try another one next time.

I found this discussion when I went looking for posts about turnips.

I never cared much for turnips. I pretty much hated them every time I tried them. I would occasionally buy some from the store and cook them for my grandma, who loves them. Then last spring, I found a variety called Oasis, which were supposed to be sweet and fairly mild.

Well, the squirrels and other critters must have agreed, because they ate all but one. I let that lone one grow all through the summer, and just pulled it up today. It was softball-sized and misshapen. I thought for sure it wouldn't be any good.

But I diced it and roasted it with olive oil and a bit of salt, and it was delicious. It tasted like a cabbage core, but more tender, and maybe not as pungent.

I immediately dug out my seeds and planted a bunch more, since October is good turnip-planting month for me here.

The greens, as others stated, are excellent. Turnips roots, well seasoned, will go well with big meat dishes. We are whole cow eaters, so let me recommend them in a stew with beef heart, turnip puree with short ribs, turnip gratin as a side dish to fried liver or to regular stew. The colder the season, the bolder the seasoning, the more the turnip shines.

Booberry, I just found this post. Don't give up on turnips just yet  lots of people dislike them because they can be bitter. I've turned turnip haters into happy turnip/rutabaga eaters by adding butter, a bit of molasses, and whatever spices you like, along the lines of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, etc. Give those rooty guys another try, and you might be surprised!

Turnips!? it was a mistake for me, I figured, radish family, plant them with carrots and beets as I do with radishes. They grew so big they took over the more timid carrots and beets (now I have carrots and beets on a separate bed).

I liked the greens well enough but had never tasted either the greens or roots before I grew them. When I tasted the roots I was disappointed. I do not think I will grow them again, since I prefer chard, kale, bok choy, amaranth, beets....we froze the roots and figured they will go well with a mixed vegetable soup, did not like them on their own. I did feel silly that I had not tasted them before and ended up finding out I did not care for the roots after I planted a whole bunch! usually, whatever we grow taste so good to us we could not imagine this. In any case, we did find the roots were nice enough to use in salads grated and marinated in balsamic vinegar and tony chachereze seasoning.