Vegetables and How I Cook Them: Turnips and Rutabaga

Myrtle Allen started Ballymaloe House as a second form of income to support her family’s farm. She once told me that she relied on the food that she knew, the food of farmers who both cherish and are spoiled by what they grow. I asked her what she meant by spoiled. She said, “A farmer won’t suffer a bad swede,” which didn’t really answer my question.

Turns out a swede is a rutabaga, and rutabaga was bred from a turnip and cabbage cross. What I’ve come to infer from her answer is that a farmer will suffer crappy weather, physically taxing work, little money, and the whims of Mother Nature, but won’t stomach bad food. It doesn’t have to be fancy, probably better if it’s not, but it has to be fresh and well grown.