TURNIPS

SAY ALL YOU WILL ABOUT HOW SWEET and delicious turnips can be, some people have difficulty getting beyond their negative impressions. I never ate them as a child. In France, I was happy to discover the dense, purple-shouldered globes you’d find in boeuf bourguignon, so delicious braised for hours in that beefy red wine sauce. But it was not until I lived in Japan that I really fell in love with eating turnips: the small, round white hakurei, the long, slim, purple-topped hinona, the red-tinted akakabura—all thin skinned, sweet, and crunchy, with their smooth and crispy greens always beautifully intact. Specific varieties, harvested younger, and handled with particular care: That’s what it takes to make turnips lovable. I couldn’t be more excited to see these very turnips show up, grown and handled so perfectly, in our own greenmarket. Some of those turnips actually come from seeds I’ve brought from Kyoto to our farmers. This discovery of new varieties is an important part of the development of delicious vegetables.

I often consider kyo-yasai as a role model—traditional vegetables that are grown specifically near Kyoto (kyo, from Kyoto, yasai meaning “vegetables”). In all, forty-one kinds of vegetables have been recognized on the kyo-yasai list, each with its unique shape, vivid color, and distinct taste, and rich in nutritional value. Kintoki carrots (orange and purple), kamo eggplants, shishigatani kabocha squash, and the turnips, akakabura and shogoin-kabu. All were developed over centuries, initially for the Imperial court, through an ongoing dialogue between gardeners and cooks. And if you walk through the Nishiki Market in Kyoto today, you will find these same vibrant, amazing-tasting vegetables. I’m working toward developing such intense relationships with the growers I know and admire.