Shall I just plant the swede?

[Dilbertian]

We just got home and discovered this swede, which had been forgotten when we went away. There are 2 or three more shoots trying to break through the shrinkwrap. It's obviously beyond eating. Could I plant it?

I would plant it, if it flowers and produces seeds then assuming they come true (I don’t grow swede, I don’t know if they will or not) you’ll have lots of swedes for free!

If it isn't mouldy, you can probably eat the swede. If it's a bit soft, put it in a bowl of water in the fridge. You can stick the leaves in a salad, they are edible.

You won't get more swedes if you plant it, although you might get more edible leaves if it takes and I guess you can always dig it up again and eat it If you leave swedes in the ground all winter, they usually die back in spring.

It's really beyond eating. I'll plant it in a big pot and maybe we'll have some greens for a few weeks.

What makes you say it's beyond eating? Swedes are often stored overwinter in cellars/clamps etc, and that one may well have been in cold storage for months before you bought it.

(also: URGH! Swede!)

If it's beyond eating, it's beyond growing ie it is mouldy or it is starting to decompose. If it is just soft from dehydration, ice water will fix that.

I guess it's worth a try if you really don't want to eat it. As you say, you may get greens and if it is just dehydrated, planting it will fix that too.

You can do both.

Cut off the top inch and plant it. Eat the rest. It's ok. Don't waste food.

It is mouldy, with rotten patches. It pongs. I have no issue with trimming off bad bits and cooking the rest, but this one is well and truly gone.

Ah... It doesn't look mouldy in the photo! In that case, it won't grow if you plant it. If the very top bit with the leaves still looks ok, you could cut that off and put it in a saucer of water on a sunny windowsill and try to grow some more leaves.

If you do plant it, after cutting the mouldy bits away and letting keeping the remainder in the dry for 24 hours in the hope that's time to start to callous over, then it'll be in its second year of growth as a biennial - ie it will use the energy stored in the root to push up a flowering shoot and make seeds. It will almost certainly then die off. You can then throw away the seeds, because nobody needs swedes.

"Nobody needs swedes"

Heathens.

Fat, oven-baked swede chips. Mmmmmm

Boiled swede mashed with just a little potato and lots of butter. Mmmmmm

Thin slices of deep-fried swede with smoked paprika. Mmmmmm

Curried swede soup. Mmmmmm

"Nobody needs swede", indeed!

Must admit I’m with mere I don’t like them either.
I bought carrot and swede mash once but the smell really put me off.

Swede is the only food I can think of that I really can't eat.Tripe? Well, I don't like it but I can eat it. Black pudding? Lovely. Sprouts? Wonderful, especially when cooked to a sulphurous mush. But swedes, just NO.

Let the swede live!

Swede is great for animal fodder. I can't understand why any adult human would voluntarily eat one . Same goes for turnips.

I have to say I am also of the opinion URGH! Swede! It is the only vegetable I won't voluntarily eat and about the only one I have never voluntarily grown.

I think it is pretty easy to grow though as we grew it in the vegetable patch at school and there was an endless supply of stinky mashed swede for supper. I don't actually remember eating any of the other stuff we grew probably the housemaster had all the nice stuff in the summer holidays.

Tripe? Well, I don't like it but I can eat it
🤢
Black pudding? Lovely
Nope.
Sprouts?Wonderful, especially when cooked to a sulphurous mush
No, no, no!
DM cooks hers that way, I refused to eat sprouts for years and years.
Until I discovered baby sprouts, roasted in the oven until slightly caramelised.
Most delicious.

I have to do two boilings of sprouts - start by adding mine to the steamer, then a few minutes later add DH's so I can have mine soft and he can have his al dente.

Some lovely comments! I like swede and am now craving oven baked swede chips.

What I am peeved about is why a swede which has a perfectly good protective skin needs to be wrapped in plastic. I would have hoped most supermarkets would have cottoned on to the fact that single use plastic is a bad thing, and in this case an unnecessary and bad thing.

What next, shrink wrapped oranges, potatoes hand sequestered in cling film , socially distanced apples............

What I am peeved about is why a swede which has a perfectly good protective skin needs to be wrapped in plastic.

I agree. I normally buy them loose. Not just less plastic use, but they don't rot - forgotten swedes just soften and can still be used.

What annoys me was that "in the old days" shop bought carrots would just dry out and shrivel, and could, if desperate, be resuscitated in water. Nowadays they develop black mould in a week and are inedible. I put it down to greater water content - growing the carrots fast and large to maximise profit. The downside of needing cheap food.

No, it's because they are scrubbed clean before you ever see them, which makes them more vulnerable to microbes.

If you store carrots in a fabric bag in the fridge, rather than in plastic, they are more likely to go limp and shrivel than to rot.

@Dilbertian

No, it's because they are scrubbed clean before you ever see them, which makes them more vulnerable to microbes.

OK, that makes sense. Buy grubby carrots then, if I get the chance. Why don't parsnips rot?

I usually put them loose in the fridge. It annoys me, though, to take up fridge space with carrots.

I don't know. Probably because I rarely buy them