Turnips & Ketchup

I know you love these garden posts more than anything else… So the humble turnip is something very overlooked these days. During the financial crisis, sales of this ‘peasant fodder’ soared; moreover, the comeback kid of the vegetable world has a surprising number of uses. Turnips are remarkably easy to grow – these were planted in August and soldiered on with little attention. I suppose being simple, solid, cheap and tasty, they could quite easily be the vegetable of the working class; this variety, Navet de Nancy a Feuille Entiere, was French and, I hope, full of the spirit of solidarity.

No we didn’t make Turnip Surprise, we had Turnip Gratin (a lot of turnip recipes seem to include bacon or pancetta), and the leaves from the plant were cooked as greens on the side.

Not only that, but this weekend we made some tomato ketchup from scratch, which was a heck of a lot nicer than Heinz (pictured here in a Nikka whisky bottle).