Completely unjustified, the derogatory reputation of the "Poor Peoples Vegetable" sticks to the rutabaga as the round, approx. 1.5kg heavy turnips are very delicious and healthy in reality. They contain especially the vitamins A, B1, B2, and C and are low in calories. Around the cities of Hamburg and Lübeck, the classic, hearty, and thick turnip stew is beloved in winter. Rutabaga can also be prepared as a kind of sauerkraut, preserved as turnip mash, and eaten raw.
There are varieties with white and yellow pulp. The ones with white pulp are the typical fodder beets for pigs and the ones with yellow pulp are eaten by humans. In times of distress, the fodder beet has saved many human lives. It certainly became most famous for the mass starvation during the first world war after a meagre potato harvest. In 2017/ 18, the rutabaga was "Vegetable of the Year". Despite all of those measures, it still remains an underestimated vegetable.
The rutabaga is a typically North German vegetable plant, which probably has to do with the fact that it has been imported from Scandinavia in the 17th century. It's closely related to rape and precisely not with the typical white turnip. Indeed, it probably rather originates from the Mediterranean region and has presumably emerged from crossings of kohlrabi and the white turnip at the times of the Romans.
In Scotland and Ireland, on Halloween, the famous jack o' lanterns aren't carved from pumpkins but from the rutabaga.
