Growing Arugula and Turnips for the Table

By Barbara Damrosch
Published on November 5, 2015
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Crisp arugula and mild Japanese turnips make a top-notch pairing in kitchen and garden.
Crisp arugula and mild Japanese turnips make a top-notch pairing in kitchen and garden.
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Use both root and greens when you harvest 'Hakurei' salad turnips.
Use both root and greens when you harvest 'Hakurei' salad turnips.
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Growing arugula in cooler weather will soften its peppery bite to a pleasing palatability.
Growing arugula in cooler weather will soften its peppery bite to a pleasing palatability.

Cooking from the garden brings so much pleasure that it’s a shame to give it up when winter comes. Luckily, folks in mild climates don’t have to, and now even Northern gardeners can put homegrown produce on the table 12 months of the year.

In part, that’s thanks to season-extending structures, such as cold frames, plastic-covered hoop tunnels and simple greenhouses. But year-round harvests are also a matter of choosing the right crops — ones that prefer winter’s bite to summer’s heat. Doing so means you’ll use lots of fresh greens and roots — not just from the root cellar, but pulled right out of the ground.

Two brassica crops that are strikingly superior when grown at lower temperatures are turnips and arugula, which also pair well in the kitchen.

Tune In to Salad Turnips

When you think of turnips, you likely imagine the earthy storage kinds, such as the standard purple-top types and the strong-flavored rutabagas (sometimes called “yellow turnips”). If these are the only turnips you know, you’re missing out.

Round, white Japanese salad turnips are so mild and sweet when grown in cool months that it’s hard to believe they’re turnips at all. Two of the more

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