MN made me buy a turnip today

[RealHousewivesOfTaunton]

I read on here that the UK's last turnip farmer hads given up because no one's buying his turnips. I felt so bad for him that I put one in my online shop today. I mashed it in with potatoes for sausages and mash this evening and it was rather nice. I've had them roasted before and they were also good so I hope he decides to keep going.

Anyone else buy something random because they felt sorry for someone/saw it on Mumsnet?

OP you've made me put one in my Sainsbos shop!

Turnips are delicious!

This gives me hope for the future of British turnip farming.

yes, waitrose bake beans.
but i must buy turnip, if i can find it, i like it in a casserole

I have never tasted a turnip. We did have to pass it round History class at school as turnips were a key element of the agricultural revolution.

Ooh I love a turnip soup

They make a really good curry.

Mashed turnips is a good and filling accompaniment, can be a substitute for mashed potatoes too

Now I'm sorry to throw a curve ball but are we talking turnips or swedes? There's an abundance of turnips where I live and when fresh they are truly things of beauty. I've never knowingly eaten swede before though!

Do you mean turnip which are the size of apples and white/purple or swede which are large with yellow flesh and a thick brown skin?

Not a sentence I ever thought I'd read!

@Raera see, in Ireland we class them as the other way round! What you call a turnip, we call a swede.

A white turnip (small) or a Swedish turnip (large)?

I don't normally buy a whole turnip (small, white) but I do like it in those pre cut stew/veg bags ❤

To the pp above - we do buy whole swedes (large, orangey) to make swede soup, very yummy.

Nooooo! Turnips aka neeps are large and have orange/yellow flesh. They are delicious as mash, in soups or eaten raw.

How could you make a turnip lantern out of a little white swede?

See, you can have a shit day and then come on here and some lovely vegetable-based talk will just turn your day right around.

Thanks OP. This thread gives me hope for the future of mankind (and turnips).

I think names for these veg depend on where you live. I (in South), call the yellow one swede and the white one turnip, but I think in Scotland, 'neeps' is swede? Am I right?

Anyway, put butter, salt and pepper in a mash of any of them, with carrots, and I'm all for them. Mmm autumn food.

Swedes are the large yellow ones
Turnips are the small white ones

Does anyone actually like the white ones (which are called turnips where I come from)? I think I’ve only had them once as I made a tray of mixed root veg and they were not nice.

They are both turnips. Just different varieties.

It wouldn't be winter stew without yellow turnips. I hate those white ones.

Me too, eagerly roasted them up, lovingly prepared. Horrible. Really bitter.

I prefer them to swede. Not only are they much easier to peel and chop, they taste fresher.

They are both brassicas, but the swede is a (relatively) recent cross between a turnip and a cabbage.
They are clearly different plants now, and to say they are the same is rather stupid.

Doing the NYT puzzles the other morning there was reference to a jicama, which my friend informed me was a giant Mexican turnip. I now have a marvellous mental image of a Swede in a poncho and sombrero, playing maracas.🪇