This business of radish plants being self-incompatible, in that flowers from one plant can't be fertilized by flowers from the same plant, was bothering me. If I have a seed packet of these things, and the seeds all came from one plant, how would your crop ever fertilize? I was talking to a botanist, and got some interesting answers. First of all, the seed provider ALWAYS gets their seeds from MANY PLANTS, and is careful to mix those seeds before packaging. Also, self-compatablility is a bred-in characteristic. Many native plants, including native vegetable plants, are self-incompatible. Self-incompatability is genetically advantageous. All human cultures have strong intolerance of incest for exactly this reason. But you'd really rather not have plants that can't self-fertilize. So that characteristic is bred out. It can be done. For plants like radishes that are only rarely asked to bear fruit, no one has ever bothered to do that.

These two "radish" recipes are in my "To Try" file. But, heck if you have an overabundance, give them a try and let us know. From what I read in the link rachelellen sent, it sounds as if the rat-tail variety could be substituted for root variety. Deanna (makes no claims to the recipe quality, have not tried them) Radish Salsa 1 T extra virgin olive oil 1 T red wine vinegar 1/8 tsp sugar 1/8 tsp dry mustard dash of salt and fresh ground pepper 1/4 c red radish matchsticks 1/4 c seeded cucumber matchsticks Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard salt and pepper in a small bowl. Stir in the radish and cucumber, cover and refrigerate. ___________________________________ Radish Relish (posted by gardenlad on this forum) 3 cups stemmed radishes 2 large ribs celery 1 large red onion 2 tsp salt 1 cup sugar 1 tbls mustard seed 2 tsp dill seed 1/2 tsp celery seed 1 cup vinegar 2 tbls prepared horseradish Put the radishes, celery and onion through the coarse blade of a grinder, or chop them fiely. Mix with remaining ingredients and allow to stand three hours. Bring to a boil in a large pan and cook ten minutes. Pour into hot jars, leaving half-inch head space. Adjust lids and process 1/2 pints and pints in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.

It is my understanding that cats and foxes do fine together. But not coyotes or fishercats which are pretty darn vicious and will tear cats into fluff balls. What I cannot understand, since New England and other north eastern locations are long settled areas, is why there is such a deer and coyote population inside the small towns and city suburbs. Down here, of course, we have no problem of deer in the towns. If they showed up, some Cajun would be boiling rice and it would be on the table for supper. Most we find are the smaller wildlife creatures, like possums and coons, squirrels and a few rabbits, and of course snakes and a few alligators. Rats? well, they hang out in clumps of bamboo. Since they feel safer at night, the owls are helpful in controlling their numbers. With the movie Ratatouille I had a dilemma because the "hero" was a rat....not a mouse, which seems more acceptable .... but an animated RAT. It was a good story though.

Possum used to get my dogs all riled up. When I had three dogs and a neighbor with lots of places in the yard that a critter could use as a den, I hated and feared them. They would get up on my fence and my dogs would go wild barking at them. Once I had all three dogs, not two, they could triangulate on critters and they killed their share of squirrels. Then there was the Night of the Possum. DH was yelling for me from the back door, "Help, they've got a 'possum!" (He may be a city boy and afraid of critters of all kinds, but he knows enough to put that little ' mark in front of "possum" because it is a contraction for opossum!) So off I went to get the dogs inside so they did not continue to disturb the neighborhood with all their barking. I got Megan to go inside. She was the most obedient of the three. But that meant that there were two dogs and me surrounding Brer Possum at that point, and who do you think he went for with two hounds snapping at him with teeth at his face level? Yeah, me. So Casey, who loved me wildly, went for that critter's neck and killed him with a hard chomp and a shake. I was able to get both Casey and Toby away from the critter and into the house, where DH was still there, holding the door. I went around to the garage and got a shovel, since I had to get the body out of the back yard so the dogs would not eat it or get possum vermin or whatever. But as I rounded the back of the garage and looked for the possum, there he was, climbing the fence! At our next house, Toby once brought what looked like one of his favorite stuffed animals to the patio door one evening. Thing was, we knew that stuffed animal had never gone outside. Again, DH hollered for me - "Toby's got a possum and he's trying to bring it in the house!" His tail was wagging so hard his whole body was wagging. I went and got a winter glove out of the closet. Toby was so happy with his find! It was a baby, maybe a third of adult size - exactly like his stuffed animal. I got it out of his mouth, picked it up with the gloved hand and threw it over the fence, just in case it lived. It did live. Toby brought it back a few days later! That's when I looked up possum on the internet and learned how beneficial they are. They eat what vermin eat. That means fewer mice around your house. They don't really den up. They just wander around. The Opossum Society of the United States says, "Opossums are beneficial: eating the harmful, unwanted pests around your home such as snails, slugs, spiders, cockroaches, rats, mice and snakes. Think of the opossum as your free gardener. The opossum is known as “Nature’s Little Sanitation Engineer” for a good reason!"