whole, including their leaves. Baby turnips are sold in yellow-, orange-, and red-fleshed varieties, as well as white-fleshed. Their flavor is mild, so they can be eaten raw in salads like radishes and other vegetables. Nutrition Boiled green leaves of the turnip top ("turnip greens") provide of food energy in a reference serving of , and are 93% water, 4% carbohydrates, and 1% protein, with negligible fat (table). The boiled greens are a rich source (more than 20% of the Daily Value, DV) particularly of vitamin K (350% DV), with vitamin A, vitamin C, and folate also in significant content (30% DV or greater, table). Boiled turnip greens also contain substantial lutein (8440 micrograms per 100 g). In a 100-gram reference amount, boiled turnip root supplies , with only vitamin C in a moderate amount (14% DV). Other micronutrients in boiled turnip are in low or negligible content (table). Boiled turnip is 94% water, 5% carbohydrates, and 1% protein, with negligible fat. History Wild forms of the turnip and its relatives, the mustards and radishes, are found over western Asia and Europe. Starting as early as 2000 BC, related oilseed subspecies of Brassica rapa like oleifera may have been domesticated several times from the Mediterranean to India, though these are not the same turnips cultivated for its roots. Furthermore, estimates of domestication dates are limited to linguistic analyses of plant names. Edible turnips were possibly first cultivated in northern Europe, and were an important food in the Hellenistic and Roman world. The turnip eventually spread east to China, and reached Japan by 700 AD. Turnips were an important crop in the cuisine of Antebellum America. They were grown for their greens as well as the roots, and could yield edible greens within a few weeks of planting, making them a staple of new plantations still in the process of becoming productive. They could be planted as late as the fall and still provide newly arrived settlers with a source of food. The typical southern way of cooking turnip greens was to boil them with a large chunk of "bacon". The broth obtained from this process was known as pot likker and was served with crumbled corn pone, often made from coarse meal when little else was available along the antebellum frontier. Cultivation The 1881 American Household Cyclopedia advises that turnips can be grown in fields that have been harrowed, ploughed,