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?

And now... so do I.
😂

Love a mashed swede (yellow). Really dislike turnips (white) specially when they fool you at the dinner table that they're a boiled potato
South east

That is in Stevenage.

Turnip soup is my favourite soup.

Scottish dad and grandparents here so the orange one is a turnip to me and the small white one is a swede.

So it is! I've spent the past few years getting it confused with Colney Fields just off J22. My flabber is ghasted. The Sainsbury's in Stevenage is tiny!

Turnips (the small white ones) taste delicious in a lamb curry.

big and yellow = swede
little and white/purple = turnip

i love to do a burns night supper (not scottish but probably some distant heritage as i live in scottish with their heads kicked in county) and haven't been able to find a turnip for my neets for about ten years.
i have resented having to have swede all this time.
i'm old enough to remember halloween involving dad getting his drill out to hollow out the swede for lanterns and i don't think i saw a pumpkin in the flesh until i was about 25!
turnip farmer needs to start an online business and post them out. i'd buy!
he needs to start a thread on here under some ruse or disguise and pretend to be a middle aged woman from berwick and voila the turnip
business is saved!
i'll only take 10% for the idea.

What do they taste like? I've only ever heard of them in the context of peasants using them to stuff ye olde mattresses, much like @StrictlyAFemaleFemale 's historical turnip experience.

I grew up with turnip lanterns (Scottish mum) but now I live down south I think turnips are the little white ones (delicious caramelised in butter per a PP) and swede is the orange one which is amazing mashed with butter and black pepper. Nigel Slater has a great recipe for a swede and goats cheese tart in one of his recent books.

Gruyere, not goats cheese (although I think I made it with goats cheese as I didn’t have any gruyere

https://thehomepage.co.uk/nigel-slaters-swede-mushroom-gruyere-thyme/

Start now as they'll take you over a month to chisel out the flesh !

My Dad used to hollow out a swede /turnip for Hallowe'en with a sharp ended chisel like implement ( woodworking tool)
Then the smell of the charred flesh from the candle .
And the wizened little face of it a week later

I've never had a turnip; but I love swede. Happy to try a turnip. Any healthy / easy cooking suggestions please?

Ps no turnips on Ocado.

@thinkfast turnips are delicious both roasted and braised! They're a great alternative to potatoes and I think they're a bit lower carb too.

This goes beautifully with roast chicken:

www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/roast-turnip-with-parmesan-thyme?srsltid=AfmBOorKsTiBjMVP39zZI8rXxj9xe_ouWtdDHzOSLKUZjp2mZavPu6st

and for braising, google "butter braised turnips" for all kinds of lovely ideas - with caraway, with wine, with fresh sage...

@RealHousewivesOfTaunton you want to try kohlrabi next!
Good as coleslaw or hot loads of good recipes for it
M&S £1 ish

Used to love that story as a toddler!

Whoever asked, Neeps are indeed Swedes (Scotland).

Horses love turnips! Used to give them whole for horse to kick about and eat

Ah the smell or burned swede from the lid of the Halloween lantern, Proustian...(I swear pumpkins didn't come to my part of the UK til 2001😂).
Turnips don't seem to be a thing where I live, just swede, might be the soil?
Definitely having buttery swede mash with sausages this week now.

I've only had them in a veg curry, and mashed in with carrots in school dinners I quite like it.

People don’t eat them. They are given to cattle. I just love the name.

I really want a turnip now, cooked or raw they are delish, but rather partial to boiled then mashed with some ginger and a little salted butter, delicious!

Not got a hope in hell of getting one where I live but kind visitors do bring us one once in a while...

We call the yellow one turnip in NE , one of my favourite veg and have been known to microwave one for lunch

We were out for Sunday lunch recently and it was served on the plate - husband was doing a toddler face saying he hated the stuff but hadn’t got the words out when he actually tried some and loved it , it might have been the fact it was 50% butter but will now feature more regularly for us both

Turnips are now on my shopping list, also swede as a by product of this discussion, along with a reminder to search for other veg rather than just getting the usual each week. Great thread OP, I've sat with my pot of tea waking up by reading about root veg, great start to the day!

I've read the word Turnip so much now the word has lost its meaning.

Turnip, tur-nip, turrrrnip, turn'p