Getting to the root of winter pebbles: turnips, potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips and radishes

I was on the hunt for the winter pebbles, an assortment of turnips, potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips and winter radishes that some enterprising farmers at my local market sell as a mix. They look like a basket of gleaming jewels. They remind me of Fruity Pebbles, the breakfast of Flintstones.

Storage crops are typically harvested in the fall and kept cool and fresh all winter. Homesteaders would store these tubers in aptly named root cellars, along with squash, sides of bacon, apples and whatever else they could squirrel away. The pandemic has made us contemplate various end-of-the-world scenarios, and brought out the inner “prepper” in many people. It sounds fun and romantic, but the diet could get old, and any viable attempt to live off the land would mean coming to terms with turnips, and some of the other harder-to-appreciate roots, including celeriac, rutabaga and Jerusalem artichoke.