I always get detained forever at the grocery checkout because the cashiers can’t identify the fruit and vegetables I buy.
Last time it was the sharon fruit. Before that, parsnips. Black potatoes and donut peaches have also made cashiers giggle. This time, however, the cashier was befuddled by rutabaga, of all things. Isn’t rutabaga very common in the US?
Clarissa's Blog 
Well, I heard the word rutabaga a lot growing up, but I never ate one until I went to college and started frequenting the farmers’ market.
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I think the kids working as cashiers aren’t necessarily the cooks in their household yet. At least here, mom still makes their dinner.
Last week I explained what a leek was.
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I was a cashier at a grocery store in high school, and you really only memorize the produce codes for the most common stuff. If you make sure at least one of each has one of those little stickers with the produce code on it, you will make your cashier very happy, and you’ll get through the line quicker.
Sometimes I wouldn’t bother, if I couldn’t figure out the code, and I liked the customer, I’d just key in something cheap, like bananas. Shh! I kind of miss that job–I got to try all sorts of new food. Mmm, plantain chips…(I say as I’m eating pie.)
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I’ve heard of rutabaga, but I’ve never actually had one before. I get the sense that they’re more common on the east coast?
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Carl Sandburg’s “Rootabaga Stories” made me fear rutabagas for much of my childhood.
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I always thought they were part of Southern cuisine. I might be completely wrong, of course.
I don’t even know what to call them in my language.
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Ain’t never et no rutabaga but maybe you’re thinkin of rhubarb? Put that shit in a pie with some strawberries and I’ll scarf it till the cows come home.
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I am writing to the great cook Clarissa. I have bought a ridiculous amount of rutabagas this week: 20 pounds of rutabagas for $5. Do you have a rutabaga recipe to share with us?
When I was a cashier in a supermarket I struggled with the different kind of lettuce. I was really dumb as a teen.
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I used rutabagas top make a winter root vegetable stew this weekend. Potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, parsnips, celery root – any root vegetables you like. Cut them up, stew them together, add your favorite spices and herbs. Yummy!!!
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I always get confused between Yams & Sweet Potatoes and Rutabagas & Turnips. Some people interchange the names freely.
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Rutabagas are bigger than turnips, and have a milder flavor.
I am amazed by this. You cannot be the only person buying these things. If you were the store would not have them.
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Exactly! And there was a good selection, too.
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