I was weeding in the rain yesterday, which was actually quite pleasant, when I spied the red tops of some radishes poking out of the soil. I hadn't seen them before, because the garden was so weedy. I had plucked a couple radishes out about two weeks ago and they were just tiny things, the size of a fingernail, so I was quite surprised when I pulled out radish after radish that were 2 inches long and about half an inch wide! (They are the French Breakfast variety, so they grow long instead of round.) I actually gasped audibly in surprise -- I had just terrible luck with my radishes last year. And when I nibbled on one, it wasn't woody at all! Initially it didn't even seem very hot but after a few more nibbles the peppery fire built up quite nicely on my taste buds!I am going to have to give some radishes away, because the bunch you see in the picture is probably only 1/25th of what is left in the garden. Gord loves radishes, but even he can't eat that many! The rest will be ready for harvesting over the next week or two, and then I'll have to figure out what to plant in that space now, since it's still pretty early in the growing season. Time to flip through my seed packets....
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Great looking radishes, we have lots of daikon radish, long and grown in winter and heaps hot.
Shame we can't share!
I don't know about your radishes but daikon can be sliced and fried, made into pickles, grated in asian salads, added to stir fries and it's yummy in sushi. Last year I cooked grated daikon fritters!
Nothing like freshly picked crisp radishes with salt and rye bread!
Awesome! I, too, was so excited when I first saw radishes peeking up through the soil. And I, too, ended up with a few more than I really wanted to eat, lol. I don't even like them all that much, it was just so cool to eat my first real crop!
By the way, yours look much nicer than my mostly-smallish ones. I'll have to try that variety next year.
Thanks Maggie, I was just reading about the daikon radish in my Four Season Harvest book! I will have to try the stir frying and the pickling for sure. So, with the rye bread, do you just make a salted radish sandwich essentially?
RA - it was exciting, especially since my radishes last year were just pathetic. My Four Seasons Harvest book says that they have to be able to grow fast to taste good, which means soil with enough water and organic matter in it - this soil was amended with well rotted manure first, and that seems to have done the trick! This was the variety I had seeds left over from last year - I didn't buy any new radish seeds because of my poor luck last year, but these have certainly shown me the difference good soil makes! The Earth is an amazing place, hey?
I saw Anthony Boudain in New York , a cafe where chefs go after work, the chef their was of Eastern European dissent and each diner was greated with a plate of radishes, butter and salt. I added the rye bread, tapas style food, savoury nibbles, Russian Zakouski, Italian antipasta.
Oh, I'm jealous!!! I planted radishes three times and they all went straight to seed. :( I wonder what went wrong. Enjoy yours.
Oh, two more things - love the photo on your header. New, isn't it?
And two, can you please email me at greenbeandreams(at)gmail(dot)com? I wanted to email you about something but can't find your email. Thanks!
My radishes all bolted, 3 crops, 2 years in a row all bolted, I'm not wasting my time or limited garden again.
Not too hot, not to dry I have no clue why my radi don't work out.
GAB - I have no idea why these radishes DID work out, unless it's my farmer friend's amazing manure (well, not his manure, his horses' manure ;)
Green Bean - Yes, the header is new! I like to switch it up every week or so, as I take pictures of what is growing and changing around our place that week. Saturday mornings are my favorite times to go out and take some pictures and turn them into blog headers. I will certainly enjoy these radishes - they seem fairly miraculous actually! Also, I have just emailed you as requested...now you've got me curious...
oh wow...seeing these makes me really hope mine work out now! I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
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