Turnips

Probably one of the easiest things to grow here in Texas during cooler weather is turnips.  I like growing them for both the greens, and for the actual turnip too.   Here is my first section that I started from seed about 3 weeks ago.  They came up super fast, had no problem germinating in the heat.   Today I planted some more seeds next to it, and I might plant another set in a few weeks, to stage them into the late fall/early winter.  

These I planted from seeds that I saved last year.   I originally bought a packet of the standard Purple Top White Globe Turnips a few  years ago, and I have not had to buy any since.   Each year I let some of the plants flower, and they produced lots of seed pods. I let them dry out, and open the pods, and collect the small poppyseed looking seeds.  

If you mainly want to eat the greens, they are just as good planted in the spring or fall but you get the best turnips in the fall, when they mature as the weather gets cold.   In the mild winter we had last year, my turnips survived through the winter.  They are pretty cold hardy, but when it gets below 20 they die.  Last winter it was really mild and some of my other plants, including spinach, and some sweet peas, survived the winter.   Those turnips were about baseball size, and tasted good.  The spring turnips that mature in the summer are usually smaller, woodier, and hotter.  

Once I get enough greens growing, I will go out regularly and pick some of the bigger leaves to make turnip greens.  My wife and even the kids like turnip greens.  When some  of the turnips are big enough, I will dig some out, and chop them up and cook them with the greens.  

These will probably be ready for the first harvest in a couple week.  To feed six people I need to pick quite a bit of leaves, since they boil down a lot.