Washing up turnips to cook for supper
Have always been interested in the every day of Appalachian cooking, the bake, boil, pan fry of it that most of my family thought so common that they didn’t write it down.
For me that would be turnips, sliced thin and fried in Crisco.
Last time I picked turnips from my grandma’s garden I was in college home for winter break. She heard the old car Daddy had got me for school kicking up gravel in the lane and met me at the door, handed me a pail, and nodded toward the patch. “Fore you lose the light” was all she said.
Well, the stars came out before I was done and right overhead was Jupiter riding the scorpion tail high. That was the sign she’d go by. Harvested after the first good frost brought on a sweetness, she said. I stood at the stove while she cooked and every once in a while she would slice me a raw piece. Sweet as could be with that bit of spice. I wish I knew how to do that.
—Carol, December 2022
Although I’ve never had fried turnips I can just see the scene Carol described: her grandmother at the stove sharing slices of turnips as she cooked them and the wonder of pulling up turnips under the stars after being away from home at college.
We love turnips and grow them every fall of the year. I love them sliced raw and sprinkled with salt but most often eat them stewed like potatoes.
We planted a few patches of turnips several weeks ago and over the weekend we planted one more raised bed of turnips. I hope they all make and if they do I think I’ll harvest some late one chilly evening as the stars begin to shine above the ridge behind the house. Of course if I do that I might as well come in and fry them too.
Last night’s video: My Life in Appalachia 29 – Soaking Up the Last of Summer.
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I only like raw turnips, they’re crisp and sweet. When my Daddy was dying from cancer, church friends and neighbors brought food. There was a bowl of what looked like mashed potatoes on the kitchen table, so I put a spoonful on my plate. When I took a bite, I realized they weren’t potatoes, but turnips. I scraped them in the garbage.
I don’t like cooked or fried turnips. Only way I’ll eat them is raw. I could eat one every day raw that is.
I remember walking to the back place it was a old farm my grandparents own in the 1910s the buildings are all gone just foundations and fields and memories. My uncle Abe and I would walk threw the woods to get there he spread turnip seeds there in summer and we walk back in the fall and check out how they were growing and pull a few and eat them raw that seems like a life time ago about 1968
I’ve been thinking about turnips lately. I’ve shared in the YouTube comments that both of my parents have passed away somewhat recently (past 2 years) and I’ve been thinking a lot about the ways we grew up eating in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. We ate a lot of turnips, but usually just boiled and mashed. The funny thing is that all my relatives (including my parents) called turnips rutabagas! I’ve become fond of the Japanese hakurei or salad turnips I can find at the farmer’s markets around where I live, but want to get some of those bigger turnips like you show in the picture here and cook them more often this fall. 🙂
I love this, my Grandma used to stew them but she also fried turnips and rutabagas in bacon grease just like she did fried potatoes and onions. They were delicious and I could eat my weight of them.
Turnips roasted in oven seasoned with oil/butter, salt and pepper are good as well as frying in bacon grease. Good alternative to boiling.
Just got some new small turnips at Amish stand on Saturday. Gonna have them cooked with potatoes and smashed with butter, salt and pepper. One of my husbands favorite things and I like them pretty good too. Now I must try some fried.
Prayers continue for Miss Louzine. Please bring back her strength, Dear Lord, that she may be able to withstand the treatments planned for her. Amen.
AMEN!
Though I’ve lived into my ninth decade of this life, I have never eaten fried turnips. They were always boiled and mashed like potatoes in my mama’s kitchen. I’ve eat my weight several times over in turnip greens. They are my favorite greens followed closely by collards with some mustard greens mixed in.
Many years ago when my nephew, Mickey, was a teenager, his family (my brother Frank’s crew) visited my mama. She cooked a big meal as usual and put the bowl of mashed turnips on the table. Mickey thought they were mashed potatoes and ate a big helping. Later I overheard him tell his mom that the mashed potatoes weren’t as good as hers. He’s never gonna live that one down.
I have always enjoyed turnips; and no doubt, especially raw and sprinkled with a bit of salt. But equally enjoyable when thinly sliced and laid and cooked on green • and not jus’ turnip green; I enjoy them on all greens. Likewise, we also like them mashed with our “Arash” potatoes. That little bit of a whang or bite goes well on the taste buds. I also like beets sliced and laid on top of beet green when cooking! Continue discussing the Appalachian fare; there might be something I missed that I need to try …….
Ye gads, I hate cooked turnips but sure love the greens. I’ve tried them cooked several different ways, they still taste like a dang turnip. I have some growing in the garden, I hope I make enough to put in the freezer.
Blessings to all
There may not be any truth in this statement but in my area the older generations thought the turnip seeds needed to be planted by August 15th in order to give them time to grow turnips. It was ok to plant later if you only wanted the greens. I know of some that still go by this. It has been too dry this year to grow greens or turnips if you can not water them.
Tipper, did you feel the earthquake in your area this morning?
I love turnips in homemade vegetable soup because they add something wonderful and different. I always miss soup without turnips!
I eat them raw or boiled. My city raised wife sliced, breaded and fried some for me once. I did not care for them that way and commented that they were ruined. Maybe if they had been sliced very thin they would have been better. These were thick and cooked on the outside while still raw on the inside. She allowed that they were ruined before she started on them. I have never tried them pickled. I like to dice them and add them to the greens.
I had turnips for breakfast this morning! My husband doesn’t like them, but I do. I cook them like my mom did, sliced and boiled and sugared and with what folks these days call a white sauce. I’ve never had a problem with turnips growing if I plant them on the Fourth of July, wet or dry, and get them harvested sometime in October, drunk or sober. Ha!
One or two messes of stewed turnips a year is usually enough for me. My wife likes two thin slices of raw turnip with peanut butter between them. I may have to try them fried if ours do well.
Thanks for the great turnip story, Tipper. And thanks to all the rest of you for your kindly turnip replies.
I do not eat turnips. They look wonderful. But in my opinion, their beauty is offset by their flavor.
Has anyone thought to carve turnips, or, for that matter, apples? Turnips can be carved into fantastical lanterns, and carved apples can dry into the most lovely faces.
Continuing to ask the Lord God of all Heaven and Earth to comfort and heal Granny.
Onward then! The best is yet to come because God can be trusted.
I love turnips anyway that I’ve ever had them. Never had them fried though. I have some in the refrigerator and may just fry them up tonight.
We like turnip’s, we don’t fry….we get some pork ribs, boil them in seasoned water till tender, salt-pepper. Put ribs in oven with BBQ sauce. Add your turnips to the pork water cook them to lull tender. Have some black eyed peas and cornbread.
If I do get my turnips to grow, I will certainly try them fried.
My husband loves turnips! Big yuck from this Jewish Christian 🙂 However, he doesn’t like pickled herring or lox and bagels. Oh well! Love Love to Granny. What a sweet and precious soul. May our Good and Great God supply all your needs out of His “pantry” for strength, grace and abundant peace. <3
I like turnips but have never had them fried. I’ll have to try them.
Remember a reader from school that had some children and a donkey in the story. seems the animal was fed turnips to motivate the beast. Decided at that point, turnips was donkey food and didn’t want to do anything with it. Since I grew up in the Midwest, had never seen the root veggie before.
Now, 65+ years later, they ain’t all that bad. Never really cared that much for avocado, either but when my daughter makes guacamole, have to admit, it’s pretty tasty.
Life is about learning and as long as I live and breathe, it is an adventure.
I like turnips about any way they can be fixed, although I don’t believe I have eaten them fried. I’ll bet they’re yummy. I have to avoid contact with the greens, however, so I can’t help harvest them. Handling the leaves or stems makes my hands turn bright red and burn like fire. Must be something in them that triggers a bad reaction in my skin.
What a wonderful memory story you shared by Carol. I like turnips okay, but they are not my favorite. However, I did try some pickled turnips in a restaurant while visiting my sister up north and I thought they were delicious. On my way home we stopped in VA at a little produce stand that sold canned jars of pickled turnips, among other home canned vegetables. I bought a jar of pickled turnips but when I got home and opened to taste them, I was expecting they would taste as delicious as the one at the restaurant I tried. I was sadly disappointed. They were extremely salty and a little on the bitter side. I shared some with other family members and they didn’t like them either. I’m not sure why there was such a big difference but there was a big difference in taste between the two pickled turnips. I’m wondering if it’s because the pickled turnips in the restaurant were young turnips freshly pickled or possibly fermented. All I know is there was a big taste difference. I have never tried fried turnips, but if they were on a menu somewhere, I’d give them a try to see if I like them or not.
I have eaten many turnips but never fried. Sounds good. The idea of going to grandma’s
House warms my heart. My Mom always had a pan of biscuits ready to go in the oven
For my son and Bulgarian buttermilk for my daughter. My daughter would eat the buttermilk with a spoon out of an old child size A&W root beer mug. Mom would patiently refill it many times. My daughter is now 50 and still treasures that mug.
When I was a child, I loved turnips raw instead of cooked. Now I enjoy them cooked but I rather have the turnip greens. No one in my family likes turnips or the greens but they all love collards. To me a delicious meal is turnip greens, cornbread and some fatback or ham. Dunk that cornbread in some pot likker. Now that’s some good eating! I may have to try some fried turnips one of these days. Have a blessed Monday everyone!
I like to cut up turnips for vegetable beef soup. They stay more firm than potatoes and are flavored nicely with the other ingredients.
When Harriett and I were married she said she didn’t like cooked turnips but when I fried them she liked them so have been frying them every time I can get them, and I also like them pickled and they make great kraut also.
You and me both Randy. Seed in the ground, too dry too sprout.
From the run of comments, seems like there is no middle ground for turnips. I’m in the raw camp but haven’t really given cooked a fair chance. I do agree that being frosted on improves the flavor. And pulling them as the stars come out just somehow puts a picture in my mind that tugs at heartstrings. I wish I could paint it.
We love turnip greens, but turnips cooked any other way, we have just not liked. I’ve tried them fried, and in soups, but there’s just something about the taste we don’t care for. Oh well, at least we love the greens!
I like turnips sliced paper thin with a shake of salt too. Taters are good like that! And radishes! Not like ordinary slices but thin enough to see through.
Just yesterday I went on Spamazon and ordered some turnip seeds. I’ve never grown fall turnips. Daddy grew them as a cover crop and to pick for greens. I would eat the root but refused to eat the greens. Most of the time though the root had worms. We did all the right things but still got worms.
I would be willing to bet that here where I live now hasn’t seen a turnip in 100 years or more. Maybe I can grow them for a season or two before the worms discover them again.
Tipper, do you ever sauté turnip greens with butter and garlic? (Salt and pepper of course)
David-we love turnip greens but I’ve never tried them like that 🙂 Sounds yummy!
Thinking back on when us Grandkids would be in the garden with Granddaddy, and he would pull a Turnip, cut slices and pass them out. Good living.
You painted a lovely picture in my mind with this post. I hope you make a video of you harvesting your turnips under the starry skies. My parents never grew turnips. They did grow rutabagas, another favorite root vegetable, which I love. Mom always stewed them and seasoned with butter, salt and pepper and maybe a little bacon. I bet fried turnips is also yummy and definitely worth a try.
Turnips is an area I’m trying to cut down and I encourage you turnip lovers there’s MORE than your fair share of turnips cause there’s thousands like me willing to donate my portion to you! Of course I’ve got a giving heart and turnips is a good place to start! I too thought they were mashed potatoes and ate a bit of the twangy stuff, but I won’t ever forget the smell and taste and it was to me like porridge or something bad kids were fed. I liked the story of Carol coming home to pick turnips in the cool of the evening. It’s just like a hillbilly to let you know right off there’s nobody too fancy and educated to not get a tail tanning if you back talk or don’t do as told. I love being a hillbilly where folks are quick to put you right in your place! “Don’t get above your raisins! Stay down to earth with me!” I don’t aim on changing a thing….
I love them fried in bacon grease.
I too never developed a liking for cooked turnips—I think it was the smell. Raw, they are quite tasty—remind me of radishes. My dislike began when I came to the supper table as an young’un and there sat a bowl of something I thought was creamy mashed potatoes. I helped myself to a big serving and got ready for a sigh of pure satisfaction. Alas, that wasn’t mashed potatoes I had just put into my mouth! My momma was forgiving and she just laughed and said, “not what you thought, huh?’ My folks loved them but the creamed or mashed or whatever those things were did not reach the status of of turnip greens or other green veggies in my list of good eatin’.
I remember eatin raw turnips fresh from the garden as grandpa was harvesting them. He’d say “run it under the pump, then you can eat it.” We’d wash it at the well pump and eat it, not even peeling it.
We never grew turnips that I can remember but I sure do like them. I don’t have enough space to grow them, but Ingle’s always has them.
Praying especially that Granny can keep her strength until treatment is planned. With all the technology it’s hard to understand why decisions cannot be made quickly but it’s all in God’s timing.
Blessings sent to all.
I love to pickle turnips as well and stew them. I do have a dear friend who gifted me 2 5 gallon buckets of them last year. I peeled them, cut them up in 1/2 to 1 inch chunks, pickled them and now have almost 30 pints of them. I think they will last me a few months…lol. You are so Blessed with such a talented family and it is such a pleasure to hear the tones and tunes that Paul puts down. He strums that ‘geetar’ so soothingly. God Bless you guys and relay to Granny that she is always in my prayers.
My husband and I love to eat turnips raw.
My mom made a great beef stew with potatoes. Once she had no Potatoes so she put turnips in instead. I was disappointed! I have never had them fried but I think I’ll try that and try roasting as well.
I want some fried turnips!
turnips have never been a favorite, but ate I did when told to at the table. As an adult I have eaten exactly once in a stew called Root Soup which is full of, as the name implies root vegetables. when cooked with the rest I couldn’t tell it was in there.
I can picture this. Although turnips were often on the table when I was growing up I never liked them. My family and my wife’s family loved them. Fried turnips might be similar to round thin sliced fried taters. I do love turnip greens -sallet to me. I have sown a patch this year but they are not growing because of lack of rain, on the news and weather last night night it was told we only had 7 tenths of an inch of rain during the month of September and none is in sight for the foreseeable forecast.
Randy, y’all got to pay the preacher more.
Hey Gene he is getting paid pretty good, maybe it is time to fire him and get another one! For the last several years it seems like the winter and spring will be wetter than normal and the summer and fall will be hotter and dryer than normal.