Before potatoes were abundant beyond South America, turnips were everyday staples, particularly in Europe during the Middle Ages. The origins of the turnip are vague but it may have come from northeastern Europe or Asia many thousands of years ago. Thriving in a cold, damp climate, turnips were the food of Europe’s poor, the majority of the population. At some undetermined point in history, the less nutritious turnip gave up its role as everyday vegetable to the more nutritious spud.

In 1730 Charles Turnip Townshend, a British politician, imported Dutch-grown turnips. He wanted to see if his livestock could survive in good health throughout the winter on a diet of turnips. In those days it was expensive to grow and store hay all winter so most people killed their livestock in the fall. This practice left people with too much meat, all at one time. Townshend proved that with turnips, easy to grow and store, farmers could fatten cattle through the winter and slaughter only as needed.

People still feed turnips to their animals, but they eat them as well. People in the UK, Germany, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic and many other places enjoy turnips in warming vegetable stews.