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  • From: Allan Balliett <aballiett@frontiernet.net>
  • To: Seed Keepers <seedkeepers@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Seed Keepers] Gilfeather Turnip
  • Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:45:20 -0500

Anyone have any gilfeather seed or know the whereabouts of any? Fedco is sold out. Thanks -Allan

Feco says:
GilfeatherĀ® Turnip (85 days) Brassica napus This heirloom has come down in folklore as a turnip but is really a rutabaga, big-knobbed and bulky. Small hairy tendrils grow on its light green skin. Either developed or discovered by John Gilfeather (1865-1944) of Wardsboro, VT, in the late 1800s. Gilfeather, a lanky secretive bachelor, is said to have cut the tops and bottoms off his turnips, so that no one else could propagate them. Nevertheless, some seeds escaped to a neighbor who gave them to market growers William and Mary Lou Schmidt, who salvaged, then commercialized, the variety. It has developed a loyal New England following, to wit, "Gilfeather is the reason for the order," stated Judy Simon-Bouton of White River Junction, VT. Gilfeather is sweeter and later to mature than other turnips, not woody even at softball size, and tastes better after frost. Listed on Slow Foods' Ark of Taste. Enjoy its tender mild spineless greens as well as its sweet white flesh.




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