In praise of turnips

I've really been enjoying our CSA shares from Stoney Acres Farm. Already we're eating more vegetables, a larger variety of vegetables, and less meat than ever before - and this is only the second week. We've gotten to try ramps (ok, we've had these before, and LOVE 'EM), Kohlrabi, bok choy, beets, and other things I wouldn't have picked up at the market. I've learned that in almost every case if the root is edible, the greens are too - kohlrabi greens are wonderful, as are beet greens.

This week there was a large bundle of turnips in the CSA box. I've never eaten turnips, much less cooked them -- my largest experience with them was reading about them in the Richard Scary version for "Three little pigs." Doing research online made me more nervous - many talked about how turnips could turn bitter and awful when cooked wrong.

Finally I decided to just roast 'em. I washed 'em, cut off the tops and roots, put some olive oil, pepper, and salt on 'em, and put them in at 375 for about 45 minutes. In the meantime, I washed and very corsely chopped the greens, then pan-fried them in a little duck fat and garlic. When the turnips came out they were lightly browned on the outside.. and then we tasted them. Wonderful. Describing the flavor is a little difficult... its something ike a cauliflower stem, but.. not. The greens were nice too, something like a more-bitter spinich. But the roots were the stars, and really wonderful.

So I can't recommend enough that you go to get some turnips and roast 'em up. Now if I can just figure out what to do with the radishes....