What is your favorite radish and why?

[Jim]

Also what is your favorite way to prepare them?

[ceara]

French Breakfast radish, the tiny pink/red ones with the white tips. I eat them raw in salads, if I can keep the slugs away from them. They are the only radish I will eat. All the others taste either too peppery or too bland to me.

[spacecase0]

I like to boil them just like turnips because then they taste kind of like turnips.

I kind of like the round red type because that is what I first grew.

[Jim]

I've never been a fan of the regular red round guys. Until getting into gardening I thought that was the only kind....this year I'm growing several.

[hiven]

I like mostly 2 types of radishes, the water melon radish (love the colour and mild taste) which used in salad or use it as garnish (forming flowers) and chinarose radish (mild and sweet) which used in soup ,stew or simply steamed.

[bunkie]

i like all radishes, but my favorite is the French Breakfast, or the Flammivil (sp?). they are both long and red with a white tip. they protrude out of the ground a bit when they're ready to pick. i use them in soups, stews, salads, even in home fries!

my favorite way to preserve them is Rosie Red Radish Relish from Carla Emery's book...

Rosy (red) Radish Relish (2 1/2 pints)

3 cups radishes
2 large ribs celery
1 large red onion
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon mustard seed
2 tablespoons dill seed
1/2 tablespoon celery salt
1 cup sider vinegar

put the radishes, celery and onion through the coarse blade of a grinder or chop them finely. mix with remaining ingredients and allow to stand for 3 hours.

bring to a boil in a large pan and cook ten minutes.

pour into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. seal and process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.

[ceara]

Ooh your recipe reminded me a Vidalia onion relish I had long ago. Does the book have that recipe by chance?

Glad to hear I'm not the only French Breakfast radish fan.

[ottawagardener]

Boiled radish? This might make me actually like them. I love all sorts of vegetables from mild to pungent to bitter and sour but radishes turn me off for some reason. That said, I like daikon in some recipes.

[walker]

My Daughter and I crave radish and goat cheese sandwiches.
I push a few or many radish through the garlic press, drain off the juice then mix with a soft cheese. spread on toast, from homemade bread of course. Add a lettuce leaf or Mizuma. Wow, now I'm hungry.

[Jim]

thanks people...keep it coming

[denninmi]

Daikon -- they are just so much fun. I grew the most awesome ones in the fall of 2008. Some of them were almost 2 feet long, about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. It turned very wet and cool in September that year, followed by a warmer October, and they were sweet, very tender, and crisp. I dug them in November, and kept some until around this time in cold storage.

Alas, I bought seeds of many kinds for 2009, and NEVER got them into the ground due to time constraints.

I vow to do better in 2010.

Also, they are good fresh, in salads, etc., pickled, and I even cut them up into chunks and cooked them with other winter root vegetables with roast beef, etc. Cooked, they are similar to turnips, but much milder in flavor.

[grunt]

I go with the daikon too. If you grow them, you have to learn to like them, or, as with zuchini (how ever you spell it), have lots of friends to off load onto. They are huge.

[canadamike]

I like them all, cherry belle as much as french breakfast or lady slipper, but I need to discover the winter ones. If one has problems digesting radishes, simply salt them and wait 15 minutes, then rinse....the bite is gone...

[hiven]

Black spanish, chinese green radish and china rose is suppose to be winter radish, but my china rose and black spanish were killed during winter.

Feb 15, 2010 19:03:35 GMT -5 canadamike said:

I like them all, cherry belle as much as french breakfast or lady slipper, but I need to discover the winter ones. If one has problems digesting radishes, simply salt them and wait 15 minutes, then rinse....the bite is gone...

[orflo]

Winter radishes are always best harvested in December or just before a very cold period, and stored in an unheated room, covered with sand or potting soil or whatever that makes them retain t heir moisture. I have the same problem you have, Nevi, China rose and Black Spanish froze, although some of my China rose seem to be recovering. But I have a third one, coming from Austria, Weiner runder kohlschwarzer is the name, and that one survived the cold winter, except for one huge specimen. So that's a better one if you would like to keep them outside, without all the hassle to bring them in and store them