Saturday, June 4, 2011

The Joy of Radishes

Radishes are usually the first vegetable crop ready in the garden. They are forgiving and quick to mature, and are a crisp spicy addition to salads and sandwiches. Most radish types being round and red, they are a little deceiving to children who are expecting a sweet flavor when they bite into their first one!

At the end of the radish season when the last few go to seed...leave them! The pods that develop after the flowers fall are delicious when new and crisp. They taste like...radishes!

Radishes sprout quickly, and that quality is useful if their seeds are sowed with notoriously slow-to-sprout carrot seeds. A few radishes will mark your rows nicely while waiting for the carrots to germinate.

When I was a child, radishes never were the center star at the dinner table though we did enjoy them. More importantly, they were the first victory in the garden after a long winter...eagerly planted, eagerly watched, and joyfully harvested.

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