swede and turnips

[Aberdeenplotter]

If it's a big yellowy purple ball and it says swede on the packet,and it'll be ready late in the year, then thats what it is and i am growing a swede. Simples

lol, who can argue with a statement like that when put so eloquently.

The swede became a valuable type of fodder for overwintering cattle and sheep because it is so hardy although mechanisation has more recently enabled farmers to make sileage for their cattle. Sheep are allowed to feed on swedes still growing in the ground in some areas with electric fencing limiting them to an area until everything there is consumed.

Weeding and singling out the plants used to be a major job on farms with weeks on end being spent in the fields, but nowadays, seed is sown using precision seeders and weeds are controlled using selective weedkillers that do not affect brassicas. Virtually the only weed you will see in a field of swedes or turnips will be shepherds purse or some other brassica.

[Chef_uk]

I always knew they were different but never knew they were brassica's, huh.

[Croila]

Oh this thread is so funny! I've always known the orange things as "neeps", but if you wanted to be a bit more formal you'd call them "turnips". As for the whiter ones, well, I've never had one of them in my life.

They're obviously very different vegetables and I know the orange ones are really called swedes ... Just not up here!

And it's so, so odd to think that in other countries they won't eat neep. I LOVE neep - we have it with everything from roast beef to lamb chops to haggis. Mashed up with a wee bit of butter ... aaaaahhh! :-D