{"id":777,"date":"2007-02-07T21:43:24","date_gmt":"2007-02-08T02:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/?p=777"},"modified":"2007-05-02T21:28:55","modified_gmt":"2007-05-03T02:28:55","slug":"adventures-in-local-food-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/?p=777","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in local food"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we moved to New Bedford, we got introduced to a new variety of turnip by the farmers at our local farmers’ market — the Wesport Macomber Turnip, a very mild white-fleshed turnip that I’ve never seen for sale anywhere else. Last time I was at one of our local supermarkets, I saw they had some for sale, erroneously labeled “Cape White Turnips.” I bought two and tonight we ate one.<\/p>\n

Carol had figured out that the Wesport Macomber tastes as good raw as it does cooked. I quartered one of the large turnips, and cut thin slices off for us to eat raw. Eaten raw, they’re sweet and succulent, with a faint peppery taste not unlike the peppery taste of turnip greens — it’s a nice combination of flavors. Better still, the flesh is crisp and firm and juicy, a little harder than a really crisp apple. It’s far enough into the winter I really craved that kind of crisp, juicy sweetness; and somehow it felt far more satisfying than the fruit that gets shipped to supermarkets from the southern hemisphere at this time of year.<\/p>\n

We cooked the rest — boiled for about five minutes until it was firm but tender, and served drained and with a pat of butter on top. Cooked, the flavor is richer, more like rutabagas or purple-top turnips than radishes, but much lighter-tasting than any other turnip I’ve ever had.<\/p>\n

According the Web site of Less Market<\/a> in Westport, Adin and Elihu Macomber developed the Westport Macomber in the 1870’s by crossbreeding radishes and rutabagas, and it seems to have gotten the best of both parents (more history here<\/a>). Whatever its history and antecedents, it’s a local delicacy that’s perfect for this time of year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we moved to New Bedford, we got introduced to a new variety of turnip by the farmers at our local farmers’ market — the Wesport Macomber Turnip, a very mild white-fleshed turnip that I’ve never seen for sale anywhere else. Last time I was at one of our local supermarkets, I saw they had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-bedford-mass","category-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}