Swede, swade, neep, tumshie, turnip, turneep, bagie, snaggie, etc. etc. It all depends on where you live. Some people will argue all day who is right when what one calls a turnip the other calls a swede. To me a swede is yellow fleshed and purple topped. Aberdeen Green Top Yellows (ie yellow flesh) would be a turnip, despite the fact that most turnips have white flesh. There is at least one, Golden Ball, that has as you might guess golden coloured flesh. Most white turnips (and some give them that title to try to avoid confusion) grow very quickly, and can be ready to eat at not much bigger than gold ball size in a month. Swedes take at least six months, and are best after a frost.
That is today's piece of useless information for you.
The EU ruled, when formalising the DOP status of Cornish pasties that the yellow fleshed purple topped varieties, which Cornishmen call turnip, may be included in the ingredients list as turnip. Much of the rest of the UK knows these as swedes. A national UK newspaper ran an article and the reporter was adamant that a swede is white fleshed. There were letters to the Editor!!!
tcreeley, Depending on how severe your winter is, you might be able to store them in a clamp. Make a small heap on top of a layer of straw outdoors, cover with more straw and the soil from digging a moat around the heap. You can make one big one or several smaller. You need to cut the tops a lot shorter than those in your photo at #185. Leave just the crown. That is another tell-tale sign. Turnips tend to have dished tops and swedes have a definite neck before the leaves start. They should be OK down to about 20ｺF.
Alternatively, and just to show I am on topic. Cut them all into chunks and cook then freeze. My wife does this because our winters are too warm to leave them in the ground - which can be done in places that do not get more than 5 or 6 degrees of frost.
