Turnip the Beet

Are we talking about veggies or music? Both!Now that the weather is warming up music returns to the markets. I’ve missed the tunes drifting throughout the tents on Sunday, but even I recognize how difficult it is to strum guitars, banjos, basses and mandolins when you can’t feel your fingers. A little bluegrass and a lot of vegetables makes for a great market.Old time music aside, we are in the last gasp of winter which means lots of great root vegetables and early spring greens. Last week an exasperated spouse who had been sent to the market to shop asked me which stand had tomatoes. After a lengthy lecture on seasonality he admitted he’ll just go to the grocery store rather than admit defeat. I suggested he try turnips or beets.“No, I want something we can eat raw in a salad,” he countered.It was all I could do not to refute his excuse, but my face must have said it all because he dashed away before I could go on.So for this week’s Dishing the Dirt we’re going to discuss why greens and root vegetables abound in late winter. Yes, technically it is still winter. Earlier this week when temperatures crept up into the high 60’s causing magnolia buds to swell and daffodils to burst open in an explosion of yellow (I even caught some cherry trees in DC flowering!), we were given a brief taste of the coming weeks. However, this morning when I left for errands there was enough ice on my windshield to warrant scraping in order to drive. Winter is still here.Tomatoes, nor any other heat-loving plants such as squashes, peppers, eggplants and most fruits would stand for this type of weather. Their expansive leaves would wilt in deference to the frost and eventually die. Nothing would ripen.But last year starting in late summer, our farmers planted cold-hardy vegetables to harvest throughout the winter and early spring. There are many plants which are not killed by cold temperatures, including my favorite—kalettes. Sure, they grow much slower than warm-weather plants, but they’re still producing. The hardiest of vegetables can survive heavy frost with air temperatures below 28 degrees. This includes spinach, onions, leeks, rutabaga, rhubarb, kohlrabi, kale, cabbage, radishes, mustards, broccoli and turnips. Others such as carrots, parsnips, chards, cauliflower and cabbage will survive in the 28-32-degree range.  They can all withstand snow as the fluffy white stuff that has be AWOL this winter acts as insulation from cold air.More damaging to winter vegetables than cold is wetness. To protect many of these crops from too much rain, farmers use hoop houses and low tunnels {knee-high greenhouses}.But back to the salad conundrum of my customer. I never got to tell him that beets and turnips can be eaten raw, actually, you can eat the whole darn plant! A single cup of turnip greens delivers the highest calcium content per gram than any vegetable or fruit and is easily substituted in any recipe that calls for a heavier braising green such as spinach, kale, chard or mustard. The same goes for beet greens.Too often I’ve received a sneer of disdain when suggesting turnips and beets as most folks think of plain boiled vegetables when they are mentioned. I think of delightful dishes like roasted root vegetables and borscht.Last week Twin Springs had a huge box of big ol’ parsnips, another one of those odd veggies devoid of pigment but full of flavor. Think of it as a starchier carrot although it’s in the parsley family. Bon Appetit offers 19 different ways to prepare parsnips, including raw! Those recipes should more than carry you through spring until winter vegetable season is over and warm weather produce arrives.And for those of you who prefer tomatoes on your salads, fear not. The last few weeks I’ve seen hot house cucumbers beginning to arrive at the market which means the tomatoes are not far behind.