Before I answer the title question, I would refer you to Google. Just type in the word “turnip.” You will be confronted (some say dizzy or overwhelmed) by the information found there. OK, here goes:

  • 122 grams of turnips contain 34 calories
  • No fat, no cholesterol, no salt (sodium)
  • 122 grams contain 233 grams (6%) potassium (if you are dealing with high blood pressure
  • Check with your MD as certain folks can develop kidney stones when consuming too many turnips
  • Turnips are 8% fiber, 2% protein, 42% of Adult Daily Requirement (ADR) Vitamin C
  • Turnips are 2% Iron, 5% of Vitamin B6, 3% of Magnesium and 3% of Calcium

Before you swoon from nutritional dizziness, let me tell you how I arrived at the question at the top of this little essay.

The Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council was invited by Brooke Freeman, Community Engagement & Volunteer Coordinator of After the Harvest. It is a volunteer organization that organizes harvesting or gleaning of farmer’s fields for crops that are then distributed to people in need. I thought it a great idea and signed up. Unfortunately, I am unable to read a map or directions while driving a car. It is a similar challenge for me to walk and chew gum simultaneously!

On the signup day suffice it to say I never made it to the right “Organic Turnip Patch” with my GKCIC compatriots. However, I persisted and got there the next day. There were a few others and we worked collecting a half-buried treasures of turnips, scraping off mud and twisting off withered greens. Fresh turnip greens are another whole category of nutrition.

After some time, my back complained loudly, and I called it a day after collecting a final round of turnips in a small plastic shopping bag to take home and prepare for our Thanksgiving Vegetarian Feast. I figured I harvested the turnips, so I was allowed to serve them.

Now all of this might seem normal unless you consider my upbringing which, over family Thanksgiving meals, included cooked turnips. My mother and well-meaning aunts would try and coax me into consuming some of the yellowish pile, looking like dirty mashed potatoes. I, of course, would have none of it! A behavior I maintained well into and even beyond adulthood.

Preparation for Thanksgiving was simple: peel and steam the turnips with a lesser number of carrots, stir in some butter, blend, add a touch of salt and a bit of diced ginger and done.

Of course, I had to sample the results. I decline to say whether I held my nose in the process, but I was not expecting the flavor, a flavor I suddenly regretted missing for the entirety of my life on the planet! They were delicious and full of energy (read nutrition). Recently harvested, by the cook, personally, turnips debuted in my 80 year old life as a glorious discovery!

Upon meditation on this event, I realized that what probably made these humble veggies taste so good, and nutritious was simply the effort I put in to gathering, sorting, cleaning, and cooking them. I take no credit for the recipe, that was from my sister-in-law in Vermont who suggested the carrot/turnip blend.

So enthralled was I by the event that I returned alone a few days after Thanksgiving to “glean” further and with similar results which I am currently enjoying.

This parallels a similar event I experienced with the mini cabbage called Brussel Sprouts. I have re-named them “Chlorophyll Bon-Bons”! You might not agree but I guess as we grow older, we open ourselves to new experiences. Maturing tastebuds are a wonderful realization. It can happen to anyone, anywhere even under dissimilar circumstances. We just must be open to it. I think that part of my experience within GKCIC is learning new stuff, from different people about a very wide variety of items, places, and circumstances. So, yes, turnips are a spiritual experience for me, my tastebuds, thanks to my fellow members of the GKCIC!

KartaPurkh S. Khalsa (Sikh Dharma)

After the Harvest rescues nutritious fruits and vegetables from going to waste and donates them to agencies that serve hungry people, primarily in Greater Kansas City. Our volunteers glean after the harvest, picking what’s left in farmers’ fields and picking up already harvested but leftover produce
The majority of the funds we raise helps secure semi-truckloads of donated produce that might otherwise end up in landfills. After the Harvest, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the largest local produce donor to Harvesters—The Community Food Network. Learn more at aftertheharvestkc.org.