The tale of the lonely turnip and the sustainable farmer
This is a fairy tale. As most fairy tales go there is a villain, a star and a happy ending. The farmer hopes the happy ending part will play out.
Once upon a time
It was a very chilly May morning. The farmer was “slogging” through the mud in her brand new red slogger shoes she received for Mothers’ Day. As she was harvesting the pretty turnips the story came to her.
As was stated, most tales have a villain. In this case I think the lonely turnip is taking the villain place.
As the farmers harvests the muddy little globes and gently washes the mud off their pretty little skins, in her mind comes the vision of last week’s farmers’ market and the week before that…and year before that.
As they pretty little globes lay on the table with their greens attached in all their glory, a customer strolls by. They spot the turnips and in their mind comes, “yuck turnips”. But they politely peruse the table and after spotting the farmer with “puss and boots eyes” they feel a bit sorry for their thoughts and kindly say, I don’t care for turnips thank you. They want to let her down gently.
Me the farmer thinks in my mind, but these are what is in season, locally grown and a staple of the South. How could people not like them? But he farmer says, “thank you for coming and I hope to have tomatoes or something else you like soon”.
The beets look upon the incident with a bit of fear as they are on the #2 list of most disliked villain foods and have a place on the table next to the turnips.
But the farmer trudges on. This experience flowing through her head at harvest this morning made her think that maybe people need to get to know the villain turnip a bit more intimately. Maybe they’re just misunderstood. Look at kale, it was a hated green suddenly turned rock star of the veggie world.
So here’s the rest of the story:
The lovely purple top turnip seeds were gently sown in a well prepared garden of the farmer the end of January on a lovely day. A few weeks later with the impending snow forecast the farmer covered all the little sprouts with shredded leaves to help keep them warm and hopefully alive. The leaves luckily are donated by the farmer’s friends who kindly save them for her as this farm doesn’t have enough trees for the job. Being sustainable as the farmer is, donated and landfill bound is the best kind of gift.