Back in March I planted turnips... thinking I'd get a few turnip greens... I got a few turnip greens... then I got turnips. Saturday, I pulled a five-gallon bucket about 3/4 full of turnips... one or two as big as a baseball... I told Mr. G I was gonna can them...

He said he wasn't sure he liked turnips... Don't tell him I said this, but I wasn't sure I liked them either, I know I've eaten them in the past... I couldn't remember if I liked them or not... but I wasn't going to waste perfectly good vegetables.

I decided to cook some up for dinner that night as a test to whether we actually LIKED turnips or not. I mashed them, added butter and salt and pepper and we ate them... they really didn't have much taste... Mr. G thought they could use a little livening up with some hot sauce or relish or something... but all in all, we agreed that we liked turnips... we didn't LOVE them, but we liked them.

So I canned the rest... here's what I did...

...then filled the jar with hot cooking liquid (from the pot), leaving a half-inch headspace.

 I added a half teaspoon of salt (canning and pickling salt) to each pint jar. (optional, it's a matter of taste)


To remove any air bubbles, I ran a butter knife between the inside of the jar and the contents, adding more liquid if necessary.


I wiped the jar rim with a damp cloth to remove any residue.

I put the hot lids onto the jars, tightening the bands to a fingertip tightness.


I loaded the jars into my pressure canner... and processed them at 10 pounds of pressure for 30 minutes (quarts would be 35 minutes).

After processing and allowing the pressure in the canner to drop to ZERO... I removed the lid, and using my jar lifter, took the jars of turnips out, set them on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool...

... and to listen for the satisfying PING of each successfully sealed jar!

I canned 12 jars of turnips... anybody got any good recipes for using turnips? I only know "Diced With Butter" and "Mashed With Butter."

Turnips on parade!