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Posts Tagged ‘turnips’

Turnips

March 22nd, 2009
Coyote House Farm | Blog

We’re planting turnips this year, not because they are companion crops or because we love them, but because I read that turnip and radish seed, planted with clover, will boost nitrogen content. We’re already planting some radish as companions to other plants for pest control which will go to seed, so I decided to plant some turnips as well, and let some of them go to seed. We can practice collecting seeds using turnips and radishes as the test subjects, and then follow up that seed-collecting practice/test with the next one, trying out the clover trick to see if there is really a beneficial effect on the soil.

Anyway, bottom line, we’ll have turnips. Incidentally, bio-intensive farming literature lists turnips as one of the “calorie crops,” a wonder food ranking up there with potatoes in terms of food calorie yield per square foot. So, there are lots of reasons to grow turnips, but one problem—we have no idea how to cook them, and so far we’ve both made it to our 40s with the impression that we don’t really like them much. Or at all. We still have a bag of them in the back of the fridge that came in our organics box by mistake, that we’ve been at a loss how to use.

Friday was my night to cook (our family rotates among the four of us) and I decided to find a turnip recipe that I thought we could stomach, to go along with the rest of dinner as a side dish. Here’s the internet recipe that I thought had the best chance of success. After sampling this dish, I think we are now at an “I like turnips” ratio of 2.5:4.0, and there’s a good chance that with a few repetitions we can raise the ratio to 3:4. There’s one stubborn holdout who probably will never try the things.

Dan

Tags: nitrogen, turnips, companion crops, biointensive, bio-intensive, food calorie yield, calorie crops, radish seed, clover

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Farm Update

July 3rd, 2008
Four Frog Farm | Blog

Now we have completed week nine of the CSA. This week we offered: tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, squash, carrots, lettuce mix, turnips, garlic, sweet corn!, kale and bulbing fennel.

It was a good week, and next week is looking great also, with potatoes and leeks on the menu. It seems a little out of season to have potatoes and leeks, because I love potato-leek soup a lot, but, hey, those will be ready.

Out at the farm, the tomatoes are really productive, yet could be looking better. We have side-dressed this week with bone meal and feather meal, because it seems like, in this situation, that is what they need. We’ll see. The peppers are looking nice, and we are going to stop picking off their flowers because the plants are quite large by now. The first patch of corn was delicious and I look forward to the next patch in a couple of weeks.

The cucumbers are fruiting really strong now, with the armenian cucumbers giving the best cucumbers out of anyone.

Squash is doing great, except 1/2 row of yellow zucchini (about 50 ft) has become stunted and I don’t know why. We have lots of squash for our needs - about 500 row feet - so no worries.

The first bean planting, in the greenhouse, has been prolific and continues to produce, even after 5 weeks, and now the temps are consistently 120 degrees in there. The second planting was good, but the growth was a little weak, so it hasn’t lasted that long—only a couple of weeks. The third planting is coming on and looks great - just in time also, because it looks like the third planting is leaving us soon.

We have good carrots now! That is exciting because they took so long. I planted the first patch on March 1st, and we have had small harvests from it, but now it is looking really nice.

Eggplant is fruiting really well. The winter squash (kabocha, acorn, delicata) looks healthier than any winter squash patch I have ever seen - it looks alien - it is humming with energy.

So, many, many success stories. And also, I need to learn to grow better tomatos. I need to help build up the soil fertility and create a great soil for them to grow in. I really want to grow excellent heirloom tomatoes. Brandywines like John Drew’s at Backbreakin’ Acres is my goal. This is the beginning of a long journey. It’s nice to have a goal.

much love,

Andrew

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