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Raphanus sativus
When I was a kid our family just didn’t do radishes. In fact, we avoided a lot of the mustard family in general, no radishes in salad, no horseradish sauce, no mustard greens. On very rare occasions, wild harvested watercress would venture into a plate or two. But that was about it. Well…things changed for me last year. I read how Tobi Hemenway uses daikons to improve soil aeration and I also saw a video about Sepp Holzer in Austria and was inspired by his enthusiasm for the lowly radish. I’m quickly warming up to this spicy little vegetable. It has some great qualities!
Radishes are pretty tough and very easy to grow, I simply sowed a few varieties around the property and many of them germinated and grew through this year’s dry winter without any inputs on my part. A good portion of those abused radishes were really bitter, but in their defense, they grew where many other vegetables would have just given up and died. The best flavor came with those that received consistent water. I’m currently enjoying my late spring batch of French Breakfast radishes. They have a mild heat to them, but it is not overbearing. I also find the red and white contrast of the root to be striking. A great way to add visual interest to a salad.
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Radishes germinate and grow extremely fast. Even the large daikon radishes only take 45 days till maturity and varieties like French Breakfast can be ready in three weeks. For the edible landscape, they can be valuable for filling in a space quickly and are great to mix in with slower germinating, slower growing plants. While the slower plants are getting started, the radishes will already be off to the races, putting down shallow roots, shading the soil and providing green filler for bare areas. In the picture below I used the classic radish and carrot combination, which is very effective for providing a constant harvest, yet also keeping leaf cover in an area over a few months. The trick is to keep the area evenly and consistently moist while the seeds are germinating in order to get an even ‘carpet’ of radishes and carrots. For this combination, I will top dress the sown seeds with coconut mulch, when I see the coconut mulch is dry, it is time to give the area another shot of water. While it can be tedious, your initial vigilance will yield a nice visual and edible pay off over the next few months.
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If you let them, or forget about them, radishes also have small but pretty flowers that grow between 2 and 3 feet tall. I had some Minowase daikons that didn’t set great tubers, and I kind of forgot about them until they burst into flower and continued to flower through the month of March. Radish flowers are edible: the flavor reminds me slightly of kale with floral tones. It is not a very strong flavor, but they are definitely a great garnish for salads or soups!
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Another thing I discovered is that young radish seed pods are delicious! I let my Minowase daikons go to seed and found that I actually preferred the taste of the young seed pods to the radish itself. They still had the spiciness of the radish, but with some additional flavors from the seeds and seed pod that I really enjoyed. The seed pods were prolific, and I am kicking myself now for not eating more. Once the pods started to mature, both the flavor and texture suffered. Right now I am letting different varieties of radish go to seed now to see what the seed pods of other varieties taste like. The pods themselves look interesting initially, but for my daikons, as they matured the pods grew heavy and caused the whole stem to droop towards the ground. I’m going to save the seeds and pray that they didn’t do some crazy cross with a wild mustard in the area. Guess we’ll find out next year…should be interesting.
Radishes can have multiple uses throughout their brief growing period. Their flavor is not for everyone, but I think more people should give them a try. Make sure you try a young, garden-fresh radish to be sure you get the full experience. And for those who might be on the fence about radishes, try this simple raw radish herb spread that I whipped up recently. It is really good on toast (prepared like you would garlic bread) or as a last minute addition to a stir fry. I imagine that it would also be a good seasoning for roasted or BBQ beef dishes, but I have yet to test that theory. Anyway, here you go. Enjoy!
Radish Herb Spread – makes about one cup
1 bunch of garlic chives
2 large garlic cloves
5 or 6 medium radishes (I used French Breakfast)
1 or 2 tsp white vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and chop until the vegetables are nicely minced. Let sit for an hour to let the flavors set, then use wherever you might use minced garlic. The oil and vinegar should preserve the ingredients for at least a week if refrigerated.
Great to find your blog too! Have you heard of rattail radish, grown specifically for the seed pod? I’m growing some this year as they have a very ornamental flower and I don’t much care for the tubers of radish though I do want to try some Daikon.
Thanks for the rattail tip, I’ll definitely check it out. After discovering that I liked the pods better than the roots, I’ll be looking into ‘podding radishes’ like rattail. I’m not a full blown radish lover, so I also dislike a mouthful of radish root. I tend to use them in combination with other flavors, more as an accent or compliment. I like the fact that if I don’t get around to using the tuber, I can let it go to seed and eat it then. I have since had about three or four radish varieties set out pods, and I like them all. Though I did like the daikon pods the best, they have a tiny bit of sweetness to them.
I planted a couple Daikon this spring to try out. One of them flowered so I left it figuring I could use the seeds for sprouting. Since then, I’ve read about eating the seed pods, so I’ll try that too. The Daikon is getting HUGE now but so far is ok – it’s not encroaching on too many other plants (yet).
where r the radish seeds??? the green thing close to the flower bulb of the radish??
After your radish goes to flower it will form seed pods. The first picture in the post shows a green seed pod next to the flower. I also have a picture of mature, dry seed pods. You can see that picture in my Picasa photo album.
Something to be aware of is that radishes and many other plants in the mustard family cross pollinate pretty easily. So when you are growing a radish in order to save the seed, you will want to make sure that there are only radishes of the same variety blooming within at least 300ft (100 meters) in order to retain purity. Also, radishes do not self-polinate so you need more than one blooming at the same time. Hope this helps.
In my area there are wild radishes and at times I had more than one radish variety blooming in my garden. So when I plant my radish seeds next year, I’m not quite sure what I’ll be getting!!