[truculent]

I’m not sure where the article is getting this from, but it seems as though turnips and other root vegetables were available before the Columbian exchange took off:

> The Old English word neep – a name now only seen in Scotland alongside tatties and haggis – goes back to at least the 10th century, but turnip (“turn-neep”) is only about 500 years old.

> Historically, the word “turnip” didn’t only refer to the round purple root, but root vegetables of various shapes, colours and sizes. Sixteenth-century botanist John Gerard was particularly keen on “small turneps”, which he said were much sweeter than the large kind and grown in a village called Hackney outside London.

From: https://theconversation.com/turnips-how-britain-fell-out-of-...