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EASTHAM, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Wellfleet is known for it's oysters. Bourne, for it's cranberries. But Eastham has the distinction of being known for its heirloom turnips.
Enthusiasm for those turnips brought 5,000 people to Nauset Regional High School Saturday for the 16th Annual Eastham Turnip Festival.
There was a blessing of the turnips, a crowning of the Turnip King and Queen, a turnip shuck-off to see who could peel a turnip the fastest, and a turnip cook-off, where people voted on the most creative turnip dishes.
Bob Wells of Redberry Farm has been growing the root vegetable for more than a decade.
"It's a tradition that's been going on for hundreds of years, to grow turnips in Eastham" he told WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe. "This variety was developed here in Eastham. It's a very unique variety with a very unique flavor that many people say is only because it's grown here. Try to grow them in another place, they don't taste the same."
Wells said Eastham's particular variety of the root vegetable, passed down from generation to generation for more than a century, is known for having a sweet, not bitter, flavor due to the town's unique soil make-up.
Check out photos from the festival above.
WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe (@KimWBZ) reports
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