Turnip-rooted chervil, how to grow it

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Turnip-rooted chervil (Chaerophyllum bulbosum) is grown for its root alone, since the leaves are poisonous: the pale flesh is sweet and subtle, tasting of chestnut and hazelnut, and is cooked like a potato beside meat or fish, or mashed for puree and soup. Everything depends on very fresh seed, for stale seed never sprouts.

Apart from its flesh used in cooking, it’s also interesting because root chervil is quite easy to care for and grow.

Sowing turnip-rooted chervil

Before delving into the sowing of your turnip-rooted chervil, check that your seeds are recent. You must absolutely be certain of having seeds that are very fresh, or they will never sprout.

Season for sowing turnip-rooted chervil

Sowing turnip-rooted chervil is best in fall, no earlier than late autumn and you can even extend it up to the month of early winter.

1. Break up the earth to a depth of around 8 inches (20 cm), and, best case scenario, add dehydrated manure or compost a few days earlier.
2. Mark the rows every 12 inches (30 cm).
3. Sow one seed every 1 inch (2 to 3 cm), more or less.
4. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of light earth (eventually blended with soil mix).
5. Watering using a gentle spray.

When sowing in spring, spread the seeds in a pot in a blend of soil mix and sand, and store it in the refrigerator for about a fortnight.

This cool period will help trigger seed germination. Sow.

Sprouting of turnip-rooted chervil

Turnip-rooted chervil requires a long dormant period during the cool winter before starting to sprout.

Sprouting thus happens in the following spring.

1. Starting in spring, water regularly but not too much every time the ground is dry.
2. Thin to about 4 inches (10 cm), keeping only the most vigorous sprouts.

The turnip-rooted chervil year, stage by stage

From seed to storage crate, turnip-rooted chervil follows a slow calendar governed by cold. Use the table below to see what happens when, and what each stage asks of you.

Miss the late autumn window and the spring route still works, but the harvest shifts to fall.

Caring for turnip-rooted chervil

Turnip-rooted chervil requires little care. The only relevant care is the same as for all other plants, like regular weeding.

As for watering, it helps to water even in spring and later whenever rainfall is insufficient.

• So run the hoe along the ground regularly and water in case of high temperatures and prolonged dry spells.
• Water regularly, especially in hot weather, because water needs are high.

• Mark the sown rows with labels or sticks, because seeds of species needing cold stratification may not germinate until the following spring, and the unmarked bed is easily hoed off by mistake.
• When weeding around beets or turnips, hoe shallowly near the plants, because the swollen storage root of these crops sits just below the soil surface and is easily nicked by deep cultivation.

Harvesting turnip-rooted chervil

Turnip-rooted chervil harvest is in summer, most often starting in early summer and until late summer.

If you’ve decided to sow in spring, harvest will be in fall.

Best time to collect your turnip-rooted chervil

1. Wait for the leaves to turn yellow and start falling to the ground.
2. Once the foliage has died down, pull out the roots and dry them directly on the ground.
3. You’ll have to wait for a few weeks before being able to eat your turnip-rooted chervil.

Slide a fork under the row and lever the soil upwards before pulling, since loosening firm ground first reduces the chance of brittle roots snapping off and being left behind.

Storing turnip-rooted chervil

Once properly dried, you can remove the leaves that grow from the turnip-rooted chervil crown.

1. Brush off excess dirt from the turnip-rooted chervils with care.
2. Store the turnip-rooted chervil in crates with a bit of sand.
3. Let the turnip-rooted chervil roots mature for 1 or 2 months before eating.

When purchased from the greengrocer’s or in a supermarket, turnip-rooted chervil will keep in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator for a few days.

• For storage roots such as carrots, beets, and potatoes, brush off loose soil rather than washing before boxing them, since surface moisture encourages rot; wash them instead just before use.
• Set aside any root that is cut or bruised and eat those first, since broken skin lets rot in sooner than on sound roots; forked roots are merely misshapen and store normally.
• Turnip-rooted chervil needs a period of after-ripening in storage, reportedly developing its sweet, chestnut-like flavour over weeks to months, whereas roots eaten straight from the ground taste comparatively bland and starchy.
• Look over the crate from time to time and pull out anything soft or mouldy.

Diseases and parasites attacking turnip-rooted chervil

Turnip-rooted chervil is quite resistant, but it sometimes falls victim to red spider mites and aphids.

• Here is how to fight red spider mites.
• Here is how to fight aphids.

Turnip-rooted chervil is occasionally hit by the carrot fly, but it doesn’t do much damage. The best way to avoid it is to pair the plant with repellent companion plants.

Keep turnip-rooted chervil off any bed that has just grown carrot, parsnip or parsley.

Companion vegetables for turnip-rooted chervil

Turnip-rooted chervil particularly LOVES garlic, chives, onion, parsley, leek.

Avoid sowing low-growing root crops such as carrots or beetroot in the shade cast by climbing beans or sweetcorn, because reduced light slows their growth and the roots swell more slowly.

Cooking with turnip-rooted chervil

Watch out, turnip-rooted chervil leaves aren’t edible, and they’re even poisonous.

Turnip-rooted chervil has no connection at all to the common herb that shares its name, chervil.

Turnip-rooted chervil is appreciated for its flesh that tastes a bit like hazelnuts with a sweet touch.

This root crop can be cooked in various manners, a bit like potatoes. It must be cooked, either as a side to meat or fish, or mashed for puree and soup.

Smart tip about turnip-rooted chervil

In warmer climates, feel free to mulch the soil in spring to retain soil moisture and coolness in the ground.