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Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: tricia on November 14, 2007, 18:22:05

Title: Swede or turnip?
Post by: tricia on November 14, 2007, 18:22:05
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
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: manicscousers on November 14, 2007, 18:24:11
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
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Simon05 on November 14, 2007, 19:21:04
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
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: grawrc on November 14, 2007, 19:22:22
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
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: calendula on November 14, 2007, 20:37:29
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
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Rob08 on November 14, 2007, 21:27:40
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).
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: saddad on November 14, 2007, 21:33:37
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
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: kt. on November 14, 2007, 23:16:55
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.
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Rhubarb Thrasher on November 15, 2007, 08:17:31
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?
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: dtw on November 15, 2007, 08:41:16
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.
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: manicscousers on November 15, 2007, 09:39:46
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 ?
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Pumper on November 15, 2007, 10:18:49
...
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  ;)
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: tricia on November 15, 2007, 12:49:00

[/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
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: saddad on November 15, 2007, 16:24:51
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
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Trixiebelle on November 15, 2007, 16:43:35
Turnips, swedes, celeriac .. they all come under the same label in my book:

'CAN'TBLEEDIN'GROW'EMROOTVEG' <---- That's the Latin name.
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: ACE on November 15, 2007, 16:50:15
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.
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Trixiebelle on November 15, 2007, 16:59:01
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

Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Toadspawn on November 15, 2007, 17:26:18
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.

 
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: cornykev on November 15, 2007, 17:43:44
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
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Shelle on November 15, 2007, 17:47:33
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.
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Rhubarb Thrasher on November 15, 2007, 17:57:48
it's simple

this is a turnip
(http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p94/rhubarbthrasher/2954732695.jpg)

and this is a swede

(http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p94/rhubarbthrasher/sven.jpg)
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: cornykev on November 15, 2007, 18:05:07
Blimey Shell your almost Scottish, the OH's from Hartlepool.    ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Jeannine on November 15, 2007, 21:47:18
I have a recipe for turnip jam, first ingredient is 2 chopped swedes XX Jeannine
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: star on November 15, 2007, 21:56:05
 ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: sawfish on November 16, 2007, 14:30:50
Yes swedes are the big ones usually with a purple top that can live through the winter in the ground and are in my opinion vastly superior in taste.

Plus you can make lanterns out of them at halloween when pumpkins are more like mythical vegetables or so I thought in Aberdeen as a child, and swedes leave a lovely smell when a lit candle is in them, like caramelised swede from the oven.

Scooping them out as a kid wasn't fun but gave me strong wrists................ thats my excuse anyway.
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: powerspade on November 16, 2007, 20:32:01
I could`nt care less what people call them all I know is that both are great veggies and I love them
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: cambourne7 on November 16, 2007, 20:40:52
I was always told swede is yellow fleshed and turnip is white.
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: saddad on November 16, 2007, 21:18:24
There is/was a yellow fleshed turnip calle "Golden Ball" I think..
 :-\
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Emagggie on November 16, 2007, 21:33:59
We have the same north /south divde here. HE calls both  turnips and I know which is which.  ;D
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: ninnyscrops on November 16, 2007, 21:48:29
So thinking forward to Burns Night here - which one is the "neep" that goes with haggis  ???
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: tricia on November 16, 2007, 21:50:09
 ;) ;) ;)@ emagggie. I certainly started something with the north/south divide question.....................personally, I still think I won the argument - officially there is a difference between a swede and a turnip - regardless of what you northerners say  ::).

Tricia
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: grawrc on November 16, 2007, 22:52:15
turnips
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: redimp on November 16, 2007, 22:53:18
So thinking forward to Burns Night here - which one is the "neep" that goes with haggis  ???
That one is swede.
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: grawrc on November 16, 2007, 23:03:22
yes definitely swedes for haggis
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Shelle on November 17, 2007, 08:37:02
I am loving this debate!  There is two different types though, I would agree!

It is just I call a "swede" a turnip and "turnip" a turnip!  Clear as mud!!!!  But I do know the difference.  :)

And none of that pumpkin rubbish for halloween, a good old turnip (or swede to some of you ;)) does the job perfectly ;D
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: sawfish on November 24, 2007, 16:13:09
The one that goes with haggis is most definitely SWEDE. There are fields of them up here and I've never ever heard of anyone having those small TURNIPS with haggis. 

Swedes are 'neeps', which I suppose right enough must be a take on tur'neeps'. It does sound confusing I know.

Also the fact that they are a brassica and not a root vegetable so they must go in the brassica section for rotation.
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: cornykev on November 24, 2007, 19:37:04
I'm with you Tricia.    "SWEDE"    ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: cleo on November 24, 2007, 20:50:55
Neeps go with tatties. But what is a neep?
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: redimp on November 24, 2007, 21:07:34
A neep is a nip is a turnip is a swede ;D
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: cornykev on November 25, 2007, 11:20:48
 ??? ??? ???    :-\ :-\ :-\      ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: sawfish on November 25, 2007, 22:50:38
you say swede, I say suede
you say turnip, I say turneep
swede suede turnip turneep
LETS CALL THE WHOLE THREAD OOOFF!
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: tricia on November 25, 2007, 22:56:26
Hear Hear  ;D ;D ;D

Tricia
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: delboy on November 26, 2007, 12:12:16
Aaargh! STOP IT..
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Lauren S on November 26, 2007, 12:59:47
TURNIP CURRY

5 tb Oil
1 pn Fennel seeds
2 lb Turnip, sliced into 1" strip
2 ts Salt
1/2 ts Turmeric
1 1/4 ts Cumin, ground
1 c Water
1/4 ts Red chile, crushed
2 1/2 tb Cilantro, chopped

Heat oil in a large skillet with a tight-fitting lid. Add fennel seeds & turnip strips. Fry, stirring, for 2 to 4 minutes over medium heat. Add salt, turmeric & cumin & mix well. Cover & cook gently over low heat for 10 minutes, the turnip should be soft. Uncover & drain off any excess oil. Add water, stirring & cook over medium heat for 3 minutes. Remove from heat & sprinkle in the crushed chiles & cilantro. Serve with rice & bread.

 
 
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: Lauren S on November 26, 2007, 13:22:46
The Tail of The Swede and the Turnip.
(Too much to type, so here is the link)  :)

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/turnip.htm
Title: Re: Swede or turnip?
Post by: sawfish on November 30, 2007, 18:21:19
That was an interesting link, especially the bit right at the end where it said....

'Code corrupted. Insert fresh copy'

 ;D
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