turnips

[songbird]

i haven't looked at them in a while and so when putting some gardens up for the winter i pulled some to throw in the holes along with the dry stuff to give the worms some wet and green stuff to work on while the dry stuff gets wetted down.

a few of the turnips were large, some larger than i could fit my hands around (i have an eight inch stretch) and that was yesterday, today there was one about twice that size and then after thinking i was done i noticed one crouched over to the side. it was about a foot and a half across... when burying it i chopped it with the shovel and it was hollow in spots.

i dunno what is normal for turnips, but we're sending one of the smaller of the large ones with the ones i'd consider normal to the friend who likes some to cook with. i hope she'll give me some feedback on how large she'd like them to be at the maximum, so i don't waste my time picking ones that she won't eat.

still i can see why someone would grow these as animal fodder. the deer and rabbits mostly ignore them and focused on eating the beets and some of the strawberries (and of course the plantains).

turnips certainly smell like beer when they ferment... Ma says they'd make beer from any- thing. these days i can believe it.

that's it for the news today, all gardens are now put up for the winter and it's into puttering and finishing up a few renovation projects in the gardens. still, it's been a good year. :)

the weather is turning more mixed after tomorrow. i don't suppose we'll see 70sF again but the past few days have made it into the 60sF and that's perfect for digging and being outside.

songbird

[T]

I tried growing and eating turnips one year. Oh my. The tasted metallic. They were tongue under the faucet bad. YUK!

[George Shirley]

I've never cared for turnips or mustard greens. Not real fond of beets but will eat them occasionally, especially if they're pickled. My folks loved turnips and mustard greens, probably from growing up very poor and having to eat whatever was handy.

79F outside right now, was somewhat hotter during the day. Rain has been threatening all day and now it's gone but supposed to be back tomorrow. So much for weather forecasts.

[Terry Coombs]

It's 69? here right now , I had to put out the fire in our woodstove . Raining heavily mixed with patches of lighter rain and expected to last another 24 hours . From the looks of the radar it's going to be a wet day here ... and I need to be laying block if this kitchen project is ever going to get built .

[George Shirley]

It's warm and light rain with strong winds out of the south here. Weather channel shows bands of rain coming across Mexico from the Pacific coming here plus rain clouds and heavy rain from the MidWest trying to hit us too. Could use the rain but not the strong winds. Had to stake and tie off the pear tree as our front yard and street is a north/south wind tunnel and makes for stronger winds there.

Kumquats are ripening but looks to be a small crop, maybe a couple of pints of marmalade or less. Our fruit trees have a big problem in that they're planted in holes in the five feet of gumbo clay under a thin layer of sand here. Should have dug test holes before we bought.

[songbird]

Derald wrote: ...

tried them and they were ok, but prefer these >==+ | | +=============================+ | | | | \ / .

yep, purple top turnips.

i grow them, but don't eat many of them as i can only cook them when Ma is away. tried the greens, didn't much like them, but may give them another try again some time.

ah, well, then one 18 inches in diameter isn't too likely to be good and it did have an empty spot in it when i chopped it up. i'll still send the one off to the friends. it looks more like a bowling ball than a veggie.

yeah, i know you grow them for greens but i don't recall ever asking you what size they got at the biggest or what size you picked the root for eating. if you're pulling leaves off them then they're not going to get as large as they would otherwise.

i like them when i eat them, but i doubt we'll ever have freezer space for them.

i also like the plant/leaves/habit and what it does for the soil when i either leave them in place to rot or when i pull some and bury them with the rest of the garden fodder. worms feast away. the flowers are different than the usual we have around here so for some variety it's nice to have some growing. i think Ma just pulled everything she could find, so i'm not sure i'll have much in the way of flowers next year from the turnips.

i had a nice group of them growing together about six of them perfectly formed, sitting right up against each other with minimal roots into the ground. when i pulled them to bury, the bottoms were covered in slugs, but the roots and plants were not harmed by the slugs so they were just using them as a hiding place for the day. nice bright purple tops and all six to ten inches across.

songbird