A Gallery of Garden Happenings
Featured Plant Ally: Rutabaga
Rutabaga in the Garden
In England, rutabaga is known as swede turnip. This cruciferous vegetable is sweeter than a turnip. American Purple Top is a large, smooth, globe-shaped root vegetable with a deep purplish-red top above the ground and a light yellow body below. The sweet, yellow, fine-grained flesh turns bright orange when cooked. Serve as an entree or as a side dish mashed with potatoes.
Rutabaga loves sun and takes about 90 days to mature.
Rutabaga in the Kitchen
Try this Scandinavian recipe using rutabagas. (Growing Great Vegetables in the Heartland by Andrea Ray Chandler)
Mashed Rutabagas
1 large rutabaga cut into chunks and peeled
1 or 2 carrots, peeled
2 or 3 potatoes, peeled
Boil roots until soft; the rutabagas will take about twice as long as the carrots and potatoes, so start them first and add the other two later. Drain off the water and add:
1 cup half and half
1 tsp sugar
Salt & pepper to taste
A pinch of nutmeg
Mash together until fluffy.
Summer Tip to Improve Soil
In wet summers, magnesium and iron may be leached from the soil, causing plant leaves to yellow between the veins, and leaves may fall early. A traditional magnesium boost is to water the roots or leaves with Epsom salts diluted 8 oz in 18 pints of water. (Garden Folklore that Works by Charlie Rye)
Garden Gleanings
As with any good teacher,
plants rarely teach us
what we think
we want to learn,
instructing us instead in the things
we really need to know.
~~Kiva Rose Hardin
See you at the Garden.
Your Prairie Parkway Garden Team