Getting Kids To 'Root' For Vegetables

The vegetable being passed around the table didn't look familiar. It looked a little like a potato, but whiter and a little bigger, with a purple-pink color at one end. 

"Where'd you get this?" asked one boy. 

The turnip had come from the kitchen, but the bigger point was that it had come from under the ground. It was one of the root vegetables being served during R.I. Farm-to-School Program's R.I. Roots Week last month.

The weeklong collaboration between Aramark (EGSD's food service provider) and Farm Fresh RI also featured parsnips cooked with carrots one day and red bliss potatoes another. 

The whole turnip didn't look anything like the braised turnips with cinnamon being served at Meadowbrook that day. And, truth be told, the braised turnips didn't taste anything like the boiled turnips of some of our pasts.

Did the kids like them? My very limited study found students approved of the turnips in a 2-to-1 ratio (see the video, above). Not bad for the lowly turnip.