Radishes

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My veg-plot is fully populated with plants now – there is hardly a square inch of bare soil! However, I haven’t yet got much to harvest. This is the time often referred to as the Hungry Gap, when all the previous Winter’s crops have been used up and before any of the new season’s ones are ready.

We have been eating a fair bit of Baby Leaf Salad and Rocket, but the high spot of this week has been the harvest of my first big batch of Radishes. We had had a few prior to this, but just half a dozen at a time. Here we have 2 x “Cherry Belle”, 3 x “Malaga Purple”, 2 x “White Icicle” (aka “Eiszapfen” from Lidl!)and 3 x “French Breakfast”.

This is different though…

There are four different varieties of Radish in these photos. The round red ones are “Scarlet Globe” and “Cherry Belle”, the long red-and-white ones are “French Breakfast”, and on the top of the pile are just two “Malaga Purple”.

To produce good Radishes I think there are probably three golden rules:
1. Choose a site that will get lots of sunlight
2. Sow the seed thinly – about an inch between seeds.
3. Water frequently, regularly and copiously

Radishes grown in dry soil almost always bolt before plumping-up, but even if they do, all is not lost. You can let them flower and produce seeds for sowing next year – and the seed-pods are edible too!

When it comes to eating Radishes, yes we do sometimes have them sliced as a salad ingredient, but our favourite way to eat them is dipped in salt, as an accompaniment to a pre-dinner drink.

If I had heaps of Radishes I might be tempted to cook some, because I’ve heard that they are nice stir-fried, or even roasted. Likewise, you can eat the leaves (lightly steamed, to accompany Chinese food is a good way, apparently). All this is hypothetical though, because I never have large quantities of Radishes and I don’t want to risk being without our favourite snack!

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