The red and yellow turnips looked pretty and I decided they would add interest to the yams (sweet potatoes) carrots, and red potatoes in my roast chicken dinner. My trusty Betty Crocker cookbook gave me advice on how to cook them. I admit, I hesitated after a Google search revealed that turnips are a love-it or hate-it type of vegetable, but I forged ahead with determination to try something new.

Turnips have a long history as a food. The earliest records show turnips cultivated in Europe by 2000 BC. The Greeks and Romans grew turnips and they became a staple food in the Middle Ages and beyond.

Turnips store energy as sugar like carrots and beets, compared to root vegetables like potatoes, cassava and taro, which store their energy as starch. Starchy vegetables only become digestible after cooking, while vegetables that store their energy as sugar can be eaten raw.

The potato originated in Peru and first arrived in Europe in 1570 after the Spanish Conquistadors invaded the Americas. Potatoes were considered a peasant food so they shipped them back to Spain to feed inmates. It was not until the 1780’s that Ireland and France accepted potatoes over their native turnips. Meanwhile, the European turnip traveled across the Atlantic and arrived in Quebec, Canada, in 1541, and Virginia, USA, in 1609. During this continental exchange of root vegetables, England’s Charles Townshend became known as “Turnip Townshend” after he introduced a novel four-crop agricultural rotation system in 1730. He proved turnips made an easy to grow and store animal fodder and their rotation replaced the previous method of leaving a field lying fallow in year three.

There is a distinctively pungent radish scent while peeling young raw turnips. A nibble of a raw slice reminded me of carrot, but slightly less sweet; perfect for grating into a salad or slaw or serving on a crudités platter with dip. Turnips provide an excellent alternative to potatoes for people on a low carb diet: compare a medium turnip with eight carbs to a medium red potato with 34 carbs. Turnips are in the cabbage family; their distinctive taste appeals best to those who appreciate stronger flavors. They pair well with herbs, sauces and glazes. Use them in soups or stews or cook and mash turnips with potatoes to reduce the carbs. Try out my roasted root vegetable recipe with turnips here. Enjoy!
Copyright kittycooks, January 14, 2011  19 degrees

References:
PracticallyEdible.com
Indepthinfo.com
Nutritiondata.self.com

Compost has a long and fascinating history. Did you know the earliest record of using manure for farming is found on an Akkadian clay tablet dating back to 2300 B.C.?  The Bible references compost as “trampling straw into manure” in Isaiah 25:10 and in the parable about the fig tree, Luke 13:6 – 13:9.

Layers of alfalfa dated to 6000 B.C. found in southern Iran point to long-term human knowledge of the value of compost. Archeologists interpret the evidence that people kept animals based on milk in pottery shards and turned alfalfa into the soil in addition to feeding it to their livestock.

William Shakespeare references compost/manure in Richard II (line 2098), Henry IV, Part II (line 2683), and this quote from Othello (line 677):

“Virtue! a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills.”

The Romans used alfalfa to “dung the land”, as written in “De Re Rustica”, a 12 book treatise on farming by Lucius Moderatus Columbella written in AD 60 – 65.

George Washington committed himself to the practice of rotating crops and built a dung repository. In 1796, Washington said, “Let others rake, and scrape up all the trash, of every sort and kind about the houses, and in the holes and corners, and throw it (all I mean that will make dung) into the stercorary”. Washington subscribed to John Spurrier’s principles as outlined in “The Practical Farmer”, 1793.

Sir Albert Howard published “An Agricultural Testament” in 1943 and was the first to write about the formula of one-part greens to three-parts browns, layered and turned frequently. J.I. Rodale continued Howard’s composting research and shared his views with the American public in “Organic Farming and Gardening” magazine in 1942.

The first chemical fertilizer plants developed in the 1920’s. Commercial farm yields have increased dramatically and the price of fresh produce dropped. Proponents of organic gardening believe that heavily-farmed, chemically fertilized, pesticide treated soils correlate to the decline of minerals in our foods and the increase of mineral deficiency diseases over the last 50 years. Soils are depleted of trace minerals found naturally in organic material, as are the livestock that are fed fodder grown in these soils; thus the foods we eat are less nutritious that in times past. Opponents point out the higher cost of organic food production and fickleness of the average shopper. Indeed, each of us casts our vote on how we'd like our food produced every time we visit the grocery store.

Read kittycook’s article on how to make Compost.
Copyright kittycooks, January 9, 2011 23 degrees

References:
American Scientist: Alfalfa
Urban Agricultural Notes: America's First Composter