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?

I’m going to start buying turnips too - thanks for this post! Hopefully British of course 😊

Just think… we could revolutionise veg farming through the power of MN. 🥰

I’ve got a kohlrabi on the go atm, that I’m grating and mixing with mayo for a coleslaw. I’m still in summer mode of cooking.

would love some suggestions as to what to do with swedes and turnip, apart from the ‘mash with lots of butter’

The turnips used for lanterns were the big ones. I remember making them as a child in the 1960s. They stink when they are lit.

I’m not sure when they started to be called swedes. They were just turnips when I was a child in northern England.

celeriac is another wonderful vegetable

Turnips when I grew up in Scotland were the big purple ones, you could get 3meals out of one. Sweet and crunchy.
Now they harvest them much smaller when they are hard and flavourless.

Ive tries to grow them but had no success - if anyone has advice.

I think the ones I enjoyed roasted were late-spring types. They were crunchy like radishes and tasted lovely.

Here are the BBC Good Food turnip recipes. @GrandesRandonnees swede recipe looks delicious too.

I am 42 and have learned today that when the Scots say neeps, they mean what I think of as swedes :o you learn something new every day!

Fuck me. Is swede short for 'Swedish turnip'?

In Scotland, Turnips are yellow, they are use for the lanterns, and fed to cows also. We also use these for the neeps and tatties, soups etc. My mother, from Yorkshire, also calls these Turnips. But we must be wrong as it only appeared later on...

There's more than one Sainsburys in Stevenage though, and a massive one in Letchworth up the road.

Swede soup recipe please?

We grew up calling swedes turnip too
Am going to add 'proper' turnip to my shopping list.

I miss jicama. Used to live in the US and I loved it in salads.
I'm going to look for turnips now. This thread has made me realise I haven't bought any for a while, and I need to eat less potatoes so it's an easy swap. And I can save a farmer! Thanks OP!

But was it shaped like a thingy?

Jicama? Well they certainly weren't round 🤭

I often use turnips in winter - if I can find any! They go very well in veg soups and with a lamb stew or casserole.

I’ve seen them fairly recently in French supermarkets - apparently they’ve become a regular item there again after being shunned for many years - along with IIRC swedes - apparently because during WW2 all the invading Nazis left for them to eat was those two.

At last! A Blackadder reference!

I was wondering why no one had mentioned Baldrick …….

Online supermarket algorithms across the country are going to be thrown into total disarray by a 500% spike in searches for turnips.

On the cow subject these days we feed fodder beat which also looks like a turnip. To both sheep and cattle, we grow tonnes of it.

@EatTheBastard I'd buy a great big turnip in the country...!

I love turnips, I too will buy more now, great in stews or just boiled/steamed and keep so well, yummy. I love this thread too, turnip lovers unite

My mum use to talk about Mangle Wurzles! She was from Kent and her dad was a farmer.

Plenty in Asda earlier - I bought 3. They keep very well in the fridge.

I’ve seen turnips (the white ones) in French supermarkets, and I doubt anyone buys those in Carrefour or SuperU to feed to their cows.