Have you eaten any turnips lately?
Posted on Thursday, October 2, 2008
You have probably "ett"a lot of turnips if you grew up in these hills half a century ago. Some have never acquired a taste for turnips, but I think they are good.
Back during the W. P. A. days, Dad worked helping build roads up in Taney County, Mo., where we lived at the time. A co-worker of his, like all the others was really hard up for the necessities of life. This fellar brought raw turnips for his dinner one day and cooked ones the next.
While this fellar considered himself as being honest, he decided to swap dinner buckets with someone else in hopes of getting a sausage or some cobbler or cake. Come time to eat he dashed to the row of dinner buckets, all of which were 8 lb. lard buckets. He grabbed the heaviest one there and hid behind a cedar tree. He opened the bucket and found inside a dozen black walnuts and a hammer to crack them open. Like I said, times were hard back then.
A fellar who worked where I did some years back was a character. He said his family had butchered a bunch of hogs last year, and he had a smokehouse full of hams and shoulders. He said his family had eaten so much hickory smoked meat they were sick of it. He went on to say he would trade a ham for a bushel of good turnips. Those who knew me, oops, him went along with the joke. But there was a new man who didn't know me, oops, him. He showed up the next day with a bushel of turnips and wanted his ham. I, oops, he had a hard time talking his way our of that mess.
A few generations ago up in Taney County lived an old couple known as Uncle Bill and Aunt Pearl. They lived a short distance from where Big Crick ran into the White River. At that place, the river was the state line between Arkansas and Missouri.
This was before that gas drinkin' thing called a motor vehicle became wide spread.
A circus had left Harrison, Ark., and was heading for Springfield, Mo. A ferry brought them across White River. They decided to camp a few days so t hey could rest up and do any repairs that needed fixing.
They had an old gentle elephant used to help set up tents and to give kids a ride. She was very gentle so t hey let her run free to play in the water.
Uncle Bill and Aunt Pearl had a routine they always followed. Up at dawn, Bill built a fire in the wood burning cookstove, while Pearl put together a pot of coffee.
While Pearl made biscuits, gravy, ham and eggs, Bill enjoyed a cup of coffee. He was saucering his coffee when he called out," Come here, Pearl."
She answered," I'm busy, what do you want ."
Bill said," There is the biggest mule I ever saw out there in the garden pulling up turnips with it's tail."
"Bill, I don't believe that," Pearl said.
"If you don't believe that, you shore won't believe me when I tell you where it's putting them."
Back then families grew their own food as well as food for chickens, hogs, horses and cattle. For winter use meat, fruits and veggies had to be preserved. Meat was sugar cured, smoked, dried or buried under a mound of straw and dirt.
Most families had a cellar where food was stored as well as a place to go during storms. Many meats, fruits and veggies were stored there -- those that require cool temperatures, high humidity and adequate ventilation are potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, beets as well as long-keeping fruits like apples and pears.
Foods like sweet potatoes, pumpkins, onions, garlic, winter squash and green tomatoes keep better in warm dry places like attics or under the house.
Turnips have been used for food for centuries. They grow wild in Siberia and are cultivated in all countries where cool to cold temperatures are found. Being short season crops, they can be grown both in the spring and again in the fall.
Rutabagas are less popular than turnips but some eat them because they are healthy being high in betacarotene. Evidently rutabagas came about in the 17 th Century when somehow a turnip and cabbage crossed, producing a new species. Some grow them and sugar beets for livestock feed.
Carrots, a native of Afghanistan, made their way to China in the 15 th Century. They are a favorite root crop and are a cousin to the parsnip, which is sweet and mild.
Radishes have been around since the 7 th Century B. C. in China. They are high in vitamin C and potassium and are easy to grow and keep.
Beets, another ancient root crop, was once used as a remedy for snake bite and women often used beet juice as a rouge on their cheeks.
Folks, these are only a few of the staple foods our folks grew back in the good ol' days.
See you all next week, Lord willin' and I have bought a ham for that ol' boy who breought a bushel of turnips to work.
------Leonard Dunn writes a hillbilly-style column and has said he has a big imagination.
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