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The last frost in the northern US is late April to late May. In NW Arkansas, it might indeed be late March to early April, however, you don't need to wait until after the last freeze to sow turnip seeds. *I've* planted turnip seeds at that time and it worked out, and I live much further north (southern Ontario).
For NW Arkansas, March weather can be a rather wild rollercoaster, not unusual to get hard freezes in the 10s to 80F+. If your seeds sprout and then get hit with 10-15F, it might could them to bolt. You could sow some seeds in late February as a gamble, for an early harvest, but I'd wait until mid-March to sow the bulk of your seeds - assuming the forecast looks relatively mild. Light freezes shouldn't be a problem for turnips. You can sow later successions maybe up to mid April for a continuous harvest. Summer heat hasn't been a problem for me, but our summer days are mostly 70-85F - I think 90F+ can be detrimental.
If you want an earlier harvest, you can just harvest when they're smaller.
Turnips can technically overwinter, even in my climate where it can get below 0F most winters, but such extreme cold will kill back the greens and might damage the root, and will only cause them to bolt when the weather warms, so it's only good if you want to collect seeds.
For a fall harvest, I'd recommend sowing seeds between mid August and early October. The early sowings will need to be watered well though to help them get through the initial heat. Maybe use shade cloth and drip irrigation?
If you want to eat raw turnips, like in salads or with dip, I highly recommend the Hakurei turnip, It's crisp, juicy, and has a wonderful flavor. I don't know anything about eating turnip greens, so some one else will have to address that. The seed companies say you can eat the greens from hakurei, but according to them every seed they sell is absolutely the very best, so I prefer to get the opinion of someone who has actually grown and eaten the veggie. My experience with hakurei: turnips excellent, greens unknown.
We did get a crop of turnip greens, but the turnips were to small. I believe they were Burpee.
But we were able to buy turnips and the turnip backbone stew was fantastic. I don't know what my wife's plans are this year. She is still picking tomatoes.
Where I used to live, every year a farmer planted 5-10 acres of turnips in the Ohio River bottoms for whoever wanted them. Several of my coworkers liked to stand around eating them raw, some took the greens home and one man loaded his pickup, almost to overflowing, with turnips for he and his mother to can. He said they were delicious canned. The way I like mine is on somebody else's plate. lol
Where I used to live, every year a farmer planted 5-10 acres of turnips in the Ohio River bottoms for whoever wanted them. Several of my coworkers liked to stand around eating them raw, some took the greens home and one man loaded his pickup, almost to overflowing, with turnips for he and his mother to can. He said they were delicious canned. The way I like mine is on somebody else's plate. lol
Roasted with other roots like beets, carrots, parsnips etc and they are fantastic.
Add them to all the other ingredients that go into baked Bubble & Squeak cakes or patties. Not only the greens, the mashed turnips too. Mmmm mmmm good stuff!
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