Ode to Radishes

For first time gardeners and little kids alike, the simple radish is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. And when you plant something that is ready to harvest in about a month, it’s also good for the impatient too.

The taste of a young radish is, well, like something sweet with a little bit of a peppery attitude that continues to become more pronounced the older it gets. Ours have been harvestable for about a week now, but it wasn’t until last night that I finally pulled a bunch to slice and toss into a salad I was making with dinner. Of course I had to taste one of the slices as I was cutting, you know, for quality assurance, and the flavor was amazing, which meant that I had to consume the rest of the slices from that radish!

When I planted them, I did so with the intention of planting rows in between the three I originally put in, but as luck would have it almost every seed I planted sprouted and formed and are growing a little varied as it is. That is to say, some are ready to pluck and others are just baby versions about to fill out. We probably have two bunches that need to be pulled, and another seven or eight that will be ready next week, just in time to plant tomatoes!

So, what is one to do with radishes that are ready to be pulled before they split? There are options, one of which is to put them on your neighbor’s doorstep. Another is to take them to friends to enjoy. But, there is a third option I employed last year, which is to submerge the bulbs in water (not the greens) and keep it in the refrigerator. This will extend their life expectancy by nearly a couple weeks if you change out the water every few days. While in the fridge they will not grow anymore, unlike green onions that seem to be every growing if I leave them in there in the right conditions, which, if you are interested, is a moist paper towel wrapped around the base and roots inside an open plastic bag and kept in the vegetable crisper.

Ah, the ever faithful radish. Thank you for being one of the first offerings of the spring. Perhaps next week you will be joined by your lettuce friends you are sharing your box with and together will make delicious salads. But as for today, I think I’ll have to take a few of you for lunch, slice you up and put you on some Wheat Thins with a little Dee Creek Farm Chevre I picked up at the farmer’s market a couple weeks ago.