Navone Yellow Cabbage Turnip Rutabaga is a cold-hardy root vegetable that thrives across hardiness zones 2-9, delivering deep golden-yellow roots packed with sweet, rich flavor in just 80-90 days. Also known as Swedish turnip, this heirloom variety produces exceptionally large roots that transform beautifully when roasted, mashed, or sautéed, and offer a pleasant peppery bite when raw. Its frost tolerance and broad climatic range make it reliable for northern gardeners sowing in late winter for early summer harvest, as well as southern growers extending their fall season.
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Moderate
2-9
?in H x ?in W
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Moderate
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This variety's true strength lies in its dual-season potential and exceptional sweetness. The deep golden-yellow roots develop a rich, complex flavor that intensifies when cooked, making them equally at home in a rustic soup or on a holiday table. Its size and cold hardiness mean you can push your growing season earlier in spring and later into fall, essentially extending your harvest window across much of the year.
Navone Yellow excels in slow-cooked preparations that draw out its natural sweetness: roasted until caramelized, mashed as a side dish, simmered in hearty soups and stews, or diced into casseroles. The tender raw roots add a pleasant peppery crunch when grated into coleslaws or salads, offering textural contrast without overpowering delicate greens. Its large size and dense flesh make it particularly suited to batch cooking and storage for winter use.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Direct sow seeds in spring as soon as soil is workable in northern areas, or in mid-to-late summer in warmer regions for fall harvest. Sow in rows or broadcast, keeping soil consistently moist until seedlings emerge.
Navone Yellow roots are ready to harvest 80-90 days after sowing when they reach 4-6 inches in diameter, though they can grow considerably larger. In northern areas, harvest before the ground freezes hard, though the roots tolerate light frosts and actually develop sweeter flavor after cold exposure. Gently loosen soil around each root with a fork and pull; if storing, trim off any leaf remnants and brush away excess soil without washing.
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“Navone Yellow represents a long lineage of Brassica napus rutabagas cultivated in Scandinavia and northern Europe, where these hardy roots became essential winter staples. Swedish turnips earned their reputation through generations of selection for sweetness and size in cool climates, and heirloom varieties like Navone Yellow were preserved and passed down by families who relied on them for winter nutrition and storage. Today this cultivar survives as a living connection to traditional vegetable breeding and the practical wisdom of northern gardening.”