I lead our Kindergarteners through second graders in the growing of a garden. We have done this every year for the last three years. We plant a spring garden and a fall garden. Now I won’t go into the gardening too much, except to say this:
Spring gardening sucks. You are battling Japanese beetles, heat, and weeds, weeds, weeds. I truly hate crabgrass. Once the school year ends, yours truly is all there is left to take care of the garden, and let’s just say I’m a somewhat neglectful gardener. I like to compare the spring garden to a rebellious teenager. We left for a two week vacation over the summer. Much like leaving a teenager home alone for a while, bad things happen. The garden was trashed and it took me a while to put it back together in the AWFUL, AWFUL summer heat and humidity.
Fall gardening, on the other hand, is lovely. We plant some cool weather vegetables during late August, such as lettuce and spinach. The weeds are virtually nonexistent, and what weeds do show up are promptly attacked by a small army of 5-8 year olds on a weekly basis. The fall garden is the responsible child who goes to bed early and gets good grades.
Anyway, one of the things we planted this fall was turnips. To be quite honest, it was one of the few seed packets left on the shelf at our local farm supply store. Apparently there is little love for these humble root vegetables. However, turnips are a super versatile and healthy vegetable. You can eat the turnip greens which are filled with calcium and a host of other vitamins and minerals. The roots are a long lasting vegetable that has provided for people during the winter months for thousands of years.
However, I have never eaten one. Nor have I ever heard anyone ever say, “Oh Man! Turnips! Awesome!”
So, here’s the deal, I have promised the kiddos I’d make a turnip dish for them with the turnips we picked this weekend. I have no idea what to do with these guys. I’ve seen some recipes on the the lovely Internet Cookbook, but if anyone has any suggestions, I’d gladly take them.
So fine reader, tell me what I should do with these guys?