The mostly cool and moist summer helped my turnips to grow bigger than softballs this year.They would fill our basement storage area if I harvest and store all that I planted.Marilyn would have a fit. She says, “I’m not eating them.”I and a couple other folks with whom I’ve shared the turnips have been relishing them all summer long.Served with cream cheese and a little salt and pepper melted into them after they are fully cooked and peeled — yum!Readers may remember a while back I asked for advice about how to prepare rutabagas without having to apologize. Most of the advice I received also applies to turnips.It takes courage to approach them.I usually have to cook turnips or rutabagas when Marilyn is gone for a while, like when she is looking after our grandchildren in Utah for a few days.Turnips stink up the house, but not as badly as rutabagas. Sorry, all you rutabaga fans!I don’t consider eating either “brassica” a problem myself because they make me feel well and tough. Football coaches should mandate turnip consumption for their teams.Animals like turnips too. I have to fence my turnip patch so rabbits don’t eat the greens and deer don’t pull them up to consume the entire plant.TURNIPS MAKE a great cover crop after grains, like barley, wheat and rye, are harvested. They also grow well in corn and soybeans if they are sowed in the early fall and have enough moisture and warm temperatures to get a good start.I noticed airplanes and helicopters seeding cover crops into some standing corn and soybean fields in my area, beginning around Sept. 10.Farmers in the northern states can plant any of the following cover crops: