Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Root Vegetables
Perhaps no part of a plant is as complex or requires such special handling as the roots. But
few other parts are so rewarding - and just at the times we need them most. Roots serve
a variety of functions. They provide a firm base from which a plant grows upward. They
probe downward in search of moisture, collect it and begin the process of sending it up to
the leaves, where it's most needed. In turn, they store the nutrition that the leaves produce.
Although the group that we call "root vegetables" is wide and varied, it's important to
remember that, botanically speaking, not everything that grows underground is a root. True
roots include carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes. But regular starchy potatoes, which grow
even deeper under the surface, are tubers. Other vegetables that we consider roots are more
technically the junction between the roots and the stem, growing partly aboveground. These
include beets, turnips and radishes.
Structurally, though, all of these varied parts are roughly similar. They are all covered
with a rough, corky skin, which serves to protect the plant's interior from damage and retain
moisture. That these peels are so spectacularly successful at these jobs is why we can eat
root vegetables all winter (although they are usually no longer stored in root cellars). We
usually peel this skin before we eat the vegetable. In many cases, because the peel is made
of a different material, it is so loosely attached to the root that after cooking, it will slip free
of its own accord. In the center of the root is the section that transports water from the earth
to the plant's above ground parts. This is called the vascular system. It is frequently tough
and woody, and in the cases of carrots and parsnips, careful cooks may remove it as well. In
between the peel and the vascular system is the part that we really crave. This is the storage
system, which is not only tenderer than the vascular system but also where the plant stores
the sugars and starches that it will need to grow. (The arrangement is not always so simple.
Beets alternate vascular and storage layers, in some cases even colored with different pig-
ments, producing a striped "bull's-eye" effect.) Root vegetables can be astonishingly sweet.
The sugar beet, a cousin of the familiar red beet, is processed to make sugar.
The end result of all of this heavy construction is something that usually looks abso-
lutely unpromising in the raw ("Where did you dig that up?") but that turns incomparably
sweet, flavorful and scented with a little careful cooking. Just when we need these veget-
ables most, in the bleakest part of the winter, they give us the sustenance to carry on until
