Carrot color is rich in nutrition. Orange is the most familiar carrot color, but there are many colorful carrots: yellow, red, purple, and white. All are healthy eating. All are easy additions to the home garden. The first domesticated carrots—cultivated in Afghanistan more than 1,100 years ago–were white. Breeding over the past 900 years has…
Root Vegetables
Beets—Simple Cooking
Harvest beets when the greens are 4-6 inches (10-15 cm) long and the roots are about 2 inches (2.5 cm) in diameter–1 inch for baby beets, up to 3 inches for mature beets. Large beets are not as tender or as flavorful as medium-size or smaller beets. A beetroot should be firm and deep colored….
Cooking Turnips
Turnips can be boiled, steamed, and stir-fried. Cook turnips until they are just tender-crunchy–less than seven minutes or so for a young turnip. The flavor will be mildly sweet and crisp. Steamed and boiled. Toss steamed small turnips with butter and parsley and serve. Boiled turnips can be mashed with butter and cream or puréed…
Bulb Onion Growing: Day Length and Temperature
To grow good bulb onions you need to know about how day length and temperature affect onion plant growth. Onions are photothermoperiodic; that means they are sensitive to temperature and also to day light. Day length or day light hours—determined by the sun tracking north in the northern hemisphere during the spring and summer and…
Grow Carrots Anytime of the Year in Five Steps
Carrots are easy to grow; just give them loose, rich soil free of clods and stones and a soil temperature anywhere between 45° and 85°F. That means you can grow carrots just about any time of the year in raised beds or containers—even in winter with the protection of a plastic tunnel. Short and finger-size…
Planting Parsnips
Parsnip roots can be used in soups, stews, and side dishes. (Learn more about cooking and serving parsnips, click here.) The parsnip is a root crop that can be planted in spring and autumn in all regions and winter in mild-winter regions. Parsnips require 95 to 120 days to mature and reach harvest. The parsnip…
Onion Growing Tips
Onions are a high yield crop. Twenty to 50 onions can grow in 1 to 1½ square feet of space. But onions are easily grown in odd spaces alongside both slower and faster growing vegetables. Green onions can be ready in 20 to 30 days after planting. Dry bulb onions can take 100 to 175…
How to Grow Kohlrabi
Kohlrabi is a hardy biennial grown as an annual. Sow kohlrabi seed in the garden 3 to 4 weeks before the last average frost date in spring. Kohlrabi grows best in cool temperatures between 40°F and 75°F (4.4°C and 23.9°C). Kohlrabi requires 45 to 60 days to reach maturity. In warm winter regions, sow kohlrabi…
How to Grow Salsify
Salsify is a cool-weather root crop. Sow salsify as early as 2 weeks before the last expected frost in spring when the soil temperature has reached about 40°F. In mild winter regions, sow salsify in early autumn for a winter harvest. Salsify requires 120 to 150 days to reach harvest and is best when it…
How to Grow Rutabaga
Rutabaga is a hardy, cool-weather biennial vegetable grown as an annual. Sow rutabaga seed in the garden 4 to 6 before the average date of the last frost in spring. Sow rutabaga also in late summer for autumn or winter harvest. In mild winter regions sow rutabaga in autumn for winter harvest. Grow rutabaga so…