Delicious Radish Pod Pickles

Tags

canning, Food, pickle, pickling, preserving, Radish, Rat Tail Radish, Seed pod

Hurrah!  I’ve done it!  I’ve found a way to grow radishes AND enjoy eating them.  Or rather, I enjoy eating their pickled seed pods.  I’m happy to report that the Radish Pod Pickles are AWESOME!  Perfect little salty yummy snack.  This discovery makes me incredibly happy, and I can’t wait to share the pickles with everyone at Beer Darts on Monday.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Pickles!

Tags

canning, pickles, radishes, Rat Tail Radish

Finally, a day off!  I started the day with a little shopping, and then I attempted my first batch of pickles.  Ever.  Canning and pickling seems really scary, but once you get going, it’s actually pretty easy.  I hope to have a pantry full of canned preserves, jams, jellies, and pickles by the end of the summer.

My Rat Tail Radishes were ripe and ready, so I harvested yesterday, and pickled today.  I hope they taste as good as they look.  The recipe I used recommends using them in place of capers, or on a skewer in a Bloody Mary.  The Bloody Mary option sounds best to me.

I Smell a Rat

Tags

garden, Home and Garden, Radish, Rat Tail Radish, Seed, Vegetable

I like to plant radishes because (a) they’re easy to grow, and (b) they sprout really fast and give me great gardening satisfaction.  However, I don’t like to eat radishes because (a) they don’t taste very good, and (b) they’re so peppery, they make my eyes water.

Enter Radish Rat Tail.

I found these seeds at Early’s this year, and thought I’d give them a try.  They certainly look different from your “garden-variety” radishes, maybe they’ll taste different too.

Like regular radishes, they were the first to sprout.  They grew fast, too.  Within a couple of weeks, they were huge.  I picked a couple, thinking they must be ready to eat, but the root was thin and measly, and tasted awful.  I waited a couple more weeks.  I picked some more.  The roots hadn’t grown at all!  Same thin and measly root, same awful taste.  Well.  They were starting to flower by now.  We decided to just give up and pull them out – they are taking up precious garden space!

But then I went into tech, and was working 12-hour days, and then it was opening weekend, and we never did get around to pulling them out.   Good thing.  Today, I had a closer look at them.

You don’t eat the root; you eat the seed pod!  Apparently, they make a zesty, crunchy addition to salads, and are great to pickle.  Yay!  Maybe I actually have found a radish that I’ll enjoy eating as much as much as I enjoy growing.

Related articles

• The Radishes are Up! (dreambles.com)