Turnip - Human Use

Human Use

Pliny the Elder considered the turnip one of the most important vegetables of his day, rating it "directly after cereals or at all events after the bean, since its utility surpasses that of any other plant." Pliny praises it as a source of fodder for farm animals, and this vegetable is not particular about the type of soil it grows in and because it can be left in the ground until the next harvest, it "prevents the effects of famine" for humans (N.H. 18.34).

The Macomber turnip is featured in one of the very few historic markers for a vegetable, on Main Road in Westport, Massachusetts.

In England, around 1700, Turnip Townshend promoted the use of turnips in a four-year crop rotation system that enabled year-round livestock production.

In the south of England and Scotland, the smaller white vegetable is often called neeps or turnips, while it is the larger rutabagas which are referred to as swedes. Turnips or neeps are mashed and eaten with haggis, traditionally on Burns Night.. The turnip is an essential ingredient in a Cornish pasty heavily spiced with black pepper.

Turnip lanterns are an old tradition; since inaugural Halloween festivals in Ireland and Scotland, turnips (rutabaga) have been carved out and used as candle lanterns. At Samhain, candle lanterns carved from turnips — samhnag — were part of the traditional Celtic festival. Large turnips were hollowed out, carved with faces and placed in windows, used to ward off harmful spirits. At Halloween in Scotland in 1895, masqueraders in disguise carried lanterns made out of scooped out turnips.

In Nordic countries, turnip was the staple crop before its replacement with potato in the 18th century. The cross between turnip and cabbage, rutabaga, was possibly first produced in Scandinavia.

In Turkey, particularly in the area near Adana, turnips are used to flavor şaljam, a juice made from purple carrots and spices served ice cold. In Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon, turnips are pickled.

In Japan, pickled turnips are also popular and are sometimes stir fried with salt/soysauce. And the turnip leaf is included in the ritual of the Festival of Seven Herbs, called suzuna.

In the Southern United States, stewed turnips are eaten as a root vegetable in the autumn and winter. The leaves or "greens" of the turnip are harvested and eaten all year. Turnip Greens are cooked with a ham hock or piece of fat pork meat, the juice produced in the stewing process is prized as "pot liquor". Stewed turnip greens are often eaten with vinegar.

In the Tyrolean Alps of Austria, raw shredded Turnip root is served in a chilled remoulade in the absence of other fresh greens as a winter salad.

Laurie Lee, in "Cider with Rosie", an autobiography of a childhood in the Cotswolds, mentions the Parochial Church Tea and Annual Entertainment, which took place around Twelfth night. "We...saw his red face lit like a hot turnip lamp as he crouched to stoke up the flames."

In Iran, boiled turnip roots (with salt) are a common household remedy for fever.

In the Punjab and Kashmir regions (India, Pakistan), turnips are used in variety of dishes. The most famous of these dishes is shab-daig.