Topic: Swede or turnip?

[tricia]

Heated discussion going on here  ::).I've just Googled swede and turnip images - and come up with red for swede and white for turnip using Unwin Seeds images as examples. My dear Gordon maintains that the red ones are turnips but can't tell me what the white ones are called  ???.

Is this anything to do with the north/south divide? He's from the north and I'm a southerner.

Tricia

[manicscousers]

yep, swede are the winter reddish ones, white, smaler ones are turnips, we grow hem in summer  ;D
that said, we, northeners, call 'em all turnips  ;D

[Simon05]

yep the red ones with orangeish flesh are swedes although my mum and dad call them turnips, must be a nottinghamshire thing, lol. The white ones are turnips and generally smaller than swedes

[grawrc]

Scotland v Sweden football match a few years back: final score Scotland 0 Sweden 2. Reported in the local press as : Swedes 2 Turnips 0! ;D ;D
Swedes are much bigger and often used for animal fodder - purple and yellow. Like manics says turnips are smaller, sweeter, easier to peel (about the size of a golf - tennis ball depending when you pick them) whereas swedes are much bigger (like celeriac) and harder to peel.

It's all confused by the fact that we Scots call swedes turnips..... ::) ::) :P

[calendula]

size matters  ;D as this usually determines the difference because you can get yellowish swedes, purple turnips, white turnips, greenish turnips, yellow and red as well but swdes tend to grow much bigger

[Rob08]

In Ireland what they call turnips are all swedes in reality.  Swedes normally have a reddish skin and grow huge.  Turnips are smaller, white with either green or purple shoulders.  They taste awful in comparison to swedes as well (swedes being much sweeter).

[saddad]

Swede is a contraction from "Swedish Turnips". Hardier than English turnips, sweeter because plants ,like parsnips, increase the sugar content, as like salt water it has a lower freezing point, and so makes them hardier..
In America Swedes are Rutabaga   ( check in T+M cat.)....
Brought in like mangols as animal feed but too good to waste on cows!
 ;D

[kt.]

You can't tell me you have never heard of that turnip fellow, Dick Turnip was his name. Wasn't he a highwayman.... ;D ;D

To me - swede is really what I know as a turnip. That's what I have been bought up with and won't change it. I know people say turnips are white. Never planted any white turnipy swede thingys before.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

if swede is from "swedish Turnip" why aren't they called "Swips"? Are swedes really nicer than turnips? Then why aren't I growing them?

[dtw]

I had always though it was a snobbery thing, with 'posh' people calling them swedes.

I think most people call them turnips regardless of what they really are.

[manicscousers]

trouble is, I find growing swedes to a good size harder than growing turnips, also aren't swede affected by club root and cabbage root fly ?

[Pumper]

...
I think most people call them turnips regardless of what they really are.

I've never ever heard anyone ever call a swede a turnip. Down south we can tell the difference between orange and white  ;)

[tricia]

[/quote]

I've never ever heard anyone ever call a swede a turnip. Down south we can tell the difference between orange and white  ;)
[/quote]

Hear hear  ;D  ;D

Tricia

[saddad]

Turnips and Swedes are both brassica and so both prone to club root and root fly... summer turnips tend to be faster growing so less likely to develop symptoms...
 ;D

[Trixiebelle]

Turnips, swedes, celeriac .. they all come under the same label in my book:

'CAN'TBLEEDIN'GROW'EMROOTVEG' <---- That's the Latin name.

[ACE]

I used to grow turnips and swedes, totally different vegetables in colour, taste and size.
When I was a nipper we used to get a mangelwurzel out of the fields and mother used it like swede
it was very sweet. I found out later that a mangelwurzel was more related to a beetroot than a swede.

There used to be a story about apple pie fillings being bulked out with turnip shaped as apple. I reckon it was mangelwurzel as it looked like swede and the inhabitants of the frozen wastelands of the north in their ignorance called it turnip.

[Trixiebelle]

When I was a nipper we used to get a mangelwurzel out of the fields and mother used it like swede
it was very sweet. I found out later that a mangelwurzel was more related to a beetroot than a swede.

There used to be a story about apple pie fillings being bulked out with turnip shaped as apple. I reckon it was mangelwurzel as it looked like swede and the inhabitants of the frozen wastelands of the north in their ignorance called it turnip.

ACE! You had it good! We lived in a shoe-box in't middle o't road and my mother used to make my underwear out of swede peelings sewn together with chicken guts!

You had Manglewurzel????

http://www.intriguing.com/mp/_sounds/lb/lucky.wav

[Toadspawn]

Swedes and turnips are botanically and morphologically different.
Turnip = Brassica rapa (syn B. campestris). It is from B. rapa that turnips, oilseed turnip rape and some Chinese cabbage varieties have been developed. With turnips the roots (swollen stem bases) are often small (golf to tennis ball size), flattened and may be completely white or the top half of the root purplein colour. The flesh is usually white. Turnips can be eaten raw in salads or cooked and mashed. They are easy to grow in the garden and sequential sowing will give a regular supply of roots throughout the spring/summer/autumn. They are also grown as a winter forage for grazing in situ by sheep.
Swedes = Brassica rapus (Rutabaga, Swedish turnip) and has produced oilseed rae and swede. It is known to have originated from a natural cross between B. rapa and B. oleracea but this cross is very dificult to create artificially. The swollen roots (stem bases) are larger than turnips and the outer skin is usually bronze( red/purple). The flesh is orange/yellow and is less watery than turnip. Traditionally it was grown for animal feed, and either grazed in situ or lifted and chopped and fed indoors in the winter. However, it is also very good eaten raw or cooked and mashed. If mashed with potatoes, butter and pepper and maybe a little milk it is excellent. Swedes are harder to grow in the garden because they are in the ground for much longer, prone to early attack by flea beetle and later attack by mildew. They do not do well in dry conditions.

Unfortunately, although swedes and turnips are different the names are often interchanged depending on where you live in the UK. 

mangolds/mangels/magelwurzels is a member of the beet family and is thus related to sugar beet and beetroot. It is used as an animal food in winter. The roots are usually harversted and stored in clamps and then chopped and fed indoors.

 

[cornykev]

I know how you feel Tricia, my OH's from oop north and she will have it, that a swede is a turnip, next year I shall grow both and I shall have the lovely soft mashed swede and she can have the manky turnips, then we'll see whats swede and whats turnip.  ;D ;D ;D

[Shelle]

Yup, what is a swede is what I and my fellow north easterners call a turnip!  I always have to remember whenever I am asked for a turnip that it is not what I know as a turnip!!!

Funny how the regions differ with names for food.