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Jewels

March 13th, 2014

Since we try to eat seasonally we’ve been enjoying a lot of root vegetables with our dinners. Carrots, celeriac, parsnips, beets, potatoes and a few others. Not only are a delicious break from summer vegetables, they are very warming from the inside. Root vegetables help our bodies produce energy to stay warm!
root vegetables 2
root vegetables 1
Last night we enjoyed a mix of purple carrots and golden beets, they were beautiful and delicious. They are so colorful, just like jewels!
root vegetables
Potatoes also grace our plates quite often, I grow loads of them in the garden. Every year I more and more winter storage crops to my must grow list. They are well worth the effort and time.

What’s your favorite root vegetable?

11 Comments to “Jewels”
  1. Ann on March 13, 2014 at 8:52 am

    Number 1..Kohlrabi. Awesome raw, roasted sublime. Easy to grow and very healthy.

    2nd would be beets and carrots tied. Not fond of parsnips or turnips but will eat them from time to time.

    Tried celariac recently and did like making a cream soup out of it. Haven’t tried it roasted yet but do plan on it since I liked it in the soup. Tastes pretty mild and can sometimes be used as a potato substitute for us to eat fairly low carb.

    I do like my potatoes, both white and sweet. But choose to eat them in very small amounts due to the above reason.

    Reply to Ann's comment

  2. Joan on March 13, 2014 at 9:11 am

    Other than beets I don’t think there is a root vegetable that I don’t love, especially roasted. Yum… Probably sweet potatoes are my favorite because they are so easy and so versatile, but potatoes, parsnip (especially roasted!), celeraic – they’re all delicious! I’ve only eaten raw kohlrabi but after reading the last post I’ll need to give cooking it a try.

    In another few weeks I should be able to dig the overwintered parsnips. These are absolutely the best!

    Reply to Joan's comment

  3. Megan on March 13, 2014 at 10:03 am

    Just curious how you store your carrots and potatoes… I have heard of doing the potatoes in a bin with damp sand or sawdust, wasn’t sure if that was the best and I don’t know how you do the carrots?

    Reply to Megan's comment

  4. Lisa@The Cutting Edge of Ordinary on March 13, 2014 at 11:17 am

    I’m an onion freak so that would have to be my #1. I wish I liked beets. I’ve tried them so many ways but they are just not for me. I also love radishes. I’m dying to try a Jerusalem artichoke. Has anyone grown them? What do they taste like?

    Reply to Lisa@The Cutting Edge of Ordinary's comment

  5. daisy on March 13, 2014 at 12:53 pm

    Love my homegrown beets, carrots and sweet potatoes! Yours look so yummy!

    Reply to daisy's comment

  6. Jennifer Fisk on March 13, 2014 at 1:28 pm

    I love all root veggies roasted with many cloves of garlic. Last night, I roasted a home grown butterflied chcken nestled in root veggies in the cast iron skillet. Good winter night’s eating.

    Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

  7. Nebraska Dave on March 13, 2014 at 2:01 pm

    Susy, all these comments are making me hungry. The end of Winter here (sorry I know you are still in it) makes me anxious for the first harvest from the garden. My best root crop hands down is the potato. Yeah, no surprise there coming from Nebraska where we thrive on “Meat, potatoes, and corn”. Are you using vegetables dug from the garden or ones that have been stored over the winter?

    The top two to three inches of the raised bed is now thawed out so the bed rejuvenation has begun. My plan is to grow many root crops this year. The list includes potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, turnips, and onions. Technically, I found out onions are not a root crop and grow on top of the ground. It improves the ability for longer storage if the soil is removed from around the onion except for a small portion of the bottom and the roots. Maybe that’s why onions never grew well for me as I kept covering up the bulb thinking it needed to be under the soil.

    I’m planting a bed of potatoes in a some what un conventional way this year. I always heard about the potato bin or trash can or etc. I’ve never heard anyone that had much luck with the continuous covering of the potato plant with soil to extract large amounts of potatoes all the way up to the top. Well, until now. There was one person having success planting in layers. The bottom layer was planted first. When the plants got 10 or 12 inches of growth. Another layer was planted and covered with soil. Then again and again for several layers of potatoes. The result for her was potatoes all the way down the bin. It made a lot of sense to me. So I’m experimenting with my favorite root crop.

    Have a great root crop spring.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

    • Susy on March 13, 2014 at 2:14 pm

      Vegetables that I dug and stored. Since my greenhouse exists only in my dreams I have to dig them and put them in the root cellar. Having a proper root cellar really helps, it stays around 45 in there.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  8. Chris on March 13, 2014 at 9:03 pm

    Beets, hands down…roasted! I don’t even peel them…pretty much any vegetable roasted always tastes better. We roast everything…just so much sweeter!
    Your purple carrots are gorgeous!

    Reply to Chris's comment

  9. Reid on March 14, 2014 at 2:09 pm

    We have been roasting a lot of root vegetables all winter. Unfortunately I didn’t save any, so they are form the grocery store. Our favorite are sweet potatoes, amongst the others. We drizzle a little pure maple syrup over them made from my inlaws’ trees. This year I will plan to grow extra to store.

    Reply to Reid's comment

  10. Tonya on March 14, 2014 at 2:29 pm

    Potatoes! Potatoes! Potatoes! Baked, fried, mashed, boiled (distilled into Vodka?) But I also love carrots, beets, onions and the occasional parsnip. And I agree with the other comments that roasting is a wonderful and easy way to prepare these lovely foods.

    Reply to Tonya's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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