Canning turnips in plain water is one of the simplest ways to preserve turnips all year long.
Turnips are the un-sung heroes of the homesteading garden. They’re incredibly easy to grow, they produce a ton of food, and they’re versatile in the kitchen.
Nutritional Benefits of Turnips
While not a nutritional powerhouse like, say, spinach or beets, turnips are a healthy starch and do have a surprising amount of Vitamin C.
While one cup of raw turnips will have roughly 50% of your daily recommended value of Vitamin C, it also contains vitamins K, A, C, E, B1, B3, B5, B6, B2 and folate in smaller amounts.
They also contain minerals like manganese, potassium, magnesium, iron, calcium and copper and some protein.
The How-To of Canning Turnips in Water
Canning turnips in water could not be easier. Simply wash your turnips fresh out of the ground and cut off the greens and tap-root.
Depending on the size of our harvest, we’ll twist off the greens in the field and throw them in a bucket of water to wash a bunch of them at a time.
Save the greens for another dish and cook them like you would collards – they are high in Vitamin C and Vitamin A. Two harvests in one!
Once cleaned and the root and stem cut off, proceed to cut your turnips into 1-inch cubes. The smaller the better, but 1-inch works for me.
Bring a pot of water to a boil and parboil them in batches for 5 minutes each. Ladle your hot turnips into sterilized canning jars and pour the same boiling water you used to parboil them over top.
Leave 1-inch of headspace and use a plastic knife or chop-stick to work around the inside of the jar and remove any bubbles.
Wipe the rim, affix the lid and ring, and place in your pressure canner. Process, according to your pressure canner’s instructions, for 30 minutes for pints, 35 minutes for quarts – adjusting for altitude.
For more canning tips check out:
This recipe comes straight from the Ball Blue Book of Canning – which I highly recommend if you’re interested at all in preserving food and stocking up.
They have thoroughly tested each recipe to ensure it is safe for home canning and human consumption.
Canning Turnips
Ingredients
- 12 cups of turnips, cut into 1-inch cubes
- water
- pickling/canning salt (optional)
Instructions
- Wash your turnips and remove the greens and taproot.
- Cut into 1-inch cubes.
- Boil for 5 minutes in batches before filling your sterilized canning jars.
- Pour boiling water over the turnips, leaving a 1-inch headspace.
- Remove bubbles, wipe rims, affix lids and rings and process in a pressure canner for 30 minutes for pints, 35 minutes for quarts.
