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WARDSBORO'S OWN GILFEATHER TURNIP

THE VERMONT STATE VEGETABLE

FROM WARDSBORO, VERMONT

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Every October, soon after southern Vermont's first good, hard frost, it's time to harvest the state's only heirloom turnip, and the State Vegetable of Vermont - the famous Gilfeather turnip.

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But, who, exactly was Gilfeather? And, how did he get a turnip named after him? It's a story that starts long ago, high up on a hillside farm in the tiny, rural town of Wardsboro, Vermont. In the early 1900s, farmer John Gilfeather, either by  some happy accident or with great patience, horticultural talent  and deep secrecy, grew a variety of one unusual turnip that had a particularly sweet flavor when harvested after

the first hardy frost of autumn.

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Scientifically speaking, there are many who declare that Gilfeather's tuber is really a rutabaga, but turnips and rutabagas are most certainly close cousins. There are others who claim it is neither one, but that it's a tuber in botanical class of its own. You'd need the complete turnip genome to argue any of that intelligently, and the circumstances of how farmer Gilfeather came to "discover" this vegetable are, so far, lost to posterity.

 

It could have been a backyard mongrel that, by some fluke of Mother Nature, hybridized itself, or it could have been a European import whose origins only he knew. Swedish? Finnish? Irish? In any event, old John Gilfeather never did say.

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One thing for certain is that there is no shortage of stories, or perhaps it's all just tall tales, that tell how farmer Gilfeather took special precautions to prevent anyone else from growing his turnip. He had so much success when he took cart loads of his delicious turnips to market every fall, that he wanted to retain the exclusive rights to it. To do so, he carefully cut off the leafy tops of each turnip, one by one, as well as trimming away the roots and root hairs, so that it could not be propagated by anyone who bought it. The only way to grow his turnips was from seed, and he kept all the seeds.   

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Vermont's Local Banquet magazine writer Tatiana Schreiber says, "I believe the tenaciousness of farmers and seed-savers who kept these varieties alive all these years says something important: These seeds were saved because they are good vegetables, well adapted to our climate, and resilient to the vagaries of cold, wet springs, unexpected summer droughts, or early fall frosts. They were also saved because of their unique qualities—such as the sweet, mild taste of the Gilfeather even when it grows as big as a well-fed woodchuck."

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Farmer John Gilfeather died in 1944 (and there are still folks around town who remember meeting him, and one local resident says she remembers when the bachelor farmer was courting her aunt). The Gilfeather Farm, located – where else? – on Gilfeather Road in Wardsboro, still exists, and the current owners, honoring tradition, always grow a big patch of knobby Gilfeather turnips from seed. It's an easy crop to cultivate and matures in about 85 days. One gardener said, "They practically grow themselves."

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Now, about that seed     Local folks grew Gilfeathers, but evidently none of them ever thought it worth the trouble to try to make history with it. That part of the story is pretty well known. In the early 1980s, Mary Lou and Bill Schmidt of Dummerston, Vermont – another small town just a few miles south of Wardsboro – recognized the unique traits and possible value of the Gilfeather turnip, and it was they who trademarked the name and certified it as an heirloom botanical through the Vermont and U.S. departments of agriculture. For a time, they were the only source of seeds. Now, seeds can be purchased locally at the Wardsboro Public Library in the Friends' Information Kiosk in the Library lobby, at Dutton's Farm stands in Newfane, Brattleboro and Manchester, or (online) from the Fedco Seed Company. (Look for it on their rutabaga list.) The Gilfeather Turnip has a place of honor in the "Slow Food USA" Ark of Taste, too.

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It's hardly a secret that if plump Gilfeather turnip plants are wintered over in vermin-proof, cold storage with a lot of firm roots attached, they can be replanted in the garden the following spring and will eventually produce seeds for your own use. (It's the unauthorized re-selling of seeds that will land you in hot water.) The Gilfeather turnip does not develop a woody texture as some oversized root vegetables might, and when cooked, either steamed or roasted, it's sweet and creamy, provided it's harvested post-frost. Food blogger and famed NYC chef Rozanne Gold writes, "This turnip attracts attention because it does not behave like a turnip, nor look like a turnip. It looks like a big knob of celery root (celeriac), whose mouth feel is more similar to a rutabaga, but with notes of horseradish and sugar."

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Here's a favorite Gilfeather recipe of the Vermont State Vegetable .

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Fluffy Gilfeather Turnip Soufflé

2 tblsp. butter / 1 tblsp. chopped onion / 3 cups Gilfeather® Turnip, boiled and mashed /  1 tsp. salt  / 1/8 tsp. pepper / 1 tblsp. sugar  / pinch of cayenne pepper / 2 egg yolks, beaten, plus 2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Melt butter in a large pan. Add onion and sauté until a delicate brown. Remove from heat. Add turnips, salt, sugar, pepper and cayenne pepper. Mix well. Add the beaten egg yolks. Fold in the stiff egg whites. Put into greased baking dish or soufflé dish. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until solid in the middle.

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The film version of this whole story. A film containing lots of footage of old-time Wardsboro residents sowing, harvesting, peeling and eating Gilfeather turnips, even raw, is on a DVD called The Gilfeather Turnip: Rooted in Wardsboro. It was made and produced by Therese Maggio. The theme song of the movie, the one and only official Gilfeather Turnip Song, is on the sound track, and it's an original composition played and sung by the composer, local musician Jimmy Knapp. Everyone sings along when Knapp gets to the twangy refrain: "You can eat'm boiled... you can eat'm mashed...  you can even eat'm in your hash...

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In Maine, the town of WALDOBORO has an unusual turnip, too, and they call it the Greenneck Turnip. It looks suspiciously similar.

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~~ © By Anita Rafael, Wardsboro, Vermont

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