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prairie turnip†

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

See 1892 quote.

See: biscuit root,bread-root,buffalo root,Indian bread-root,Indian carrot,Indian turnip(def. 1),meadow turnip,prairie potato,turnip of the plains,wild turnip(def. 2)

Quotations

1820

[They find a root in the plains, that is nearly a foot long, and two or three inches in circumference, which is shaped like a carrot, and tastes like a turnip, which they pound fine, and then dry it in the sun.]

1857

. . . the root which receives the name of the Prairie Turnip by the half-breeds, who, with Indians, use it as food, and sometimes crush it into a kind of flour and make bread from it. The root is very dry and almost tasteless, and even when boiled for a great length of time does not become soft, and is at best but insipid unnutritious trash.

1892

After this he took to eating what the Canadians (French voyageurs) call the turnip of the plains. This is the root of one of the Pea family (psoralea esculenta), "Pomme blanche," or "Pomme de Prairie" or "Prairie turnip."

1956

The prairie Indians also ate service berries, wild cherries, red willow berries, prairie turnips, bitter root, and wild rose haws.