End of the Season: Radishes

When I was a kid, I thought all radishes were the same: about the size of a golf ball and red skinned. Then when I discovered anime I saw my first daikon. If you haven't ever seen a daikon it's a long tapered white skinned type of radish that can get over a foot long and weigh several pounds. I like the occasional radish raw, but I particularly like daikon diced and simmered in miso soup.

Ryan, on the other hand, loves radishes. So, when I was starting up my garden boxes I took the advice that radishes were an easy first crop and started looking into varieties. There are a lot of varieties. Radishes come in a multitude of colors: red and white of course, but also pink, yellow, tan, purple, and black. They also come in a large spectrum of sizes and shapes. The most common in the U.S. are the globe shaped little red ones that I grew up with, followed by french breakfast varieties shaped like baby carrot nubbins and colored red or pink, followed by daikons which are becoming increasingly popular. However there are also white turnip shaped giants that get up to 100 pounds, smaller black varieties that come out of Russia, and everything in between. I really couldn't decide so I got a variety pack of small globe and oblong types from Park Seeds they called their "Beauty Blend."

This year I had a bumper crop and pulled about 2.5 pounds of radishes out of the box. It took Ryan quite a while to get through them all. The secret to knowing they are ready to pull is when you can start seeing the top of the bulb without digging.