I like raw radishes chopped up alone with dressing, or in salad. Also, most any radish root steams up nicely and tastes much like those fancy white summer turnips - not surprising as they are very closely related. Radish greens also cook well and taste like turnip greens. The young seed-pods are a zesty and snappy addition to salad.

The "daikon" type radishes are the most interesting, IMO. You might want to try the "Black Spanish" also, an heirloom storage variety. I've got a bunch of 'fodder-radish' growing as a cover crop right now - they are daikon-type with enormous piercing roots and tons of foliage. The roots are not bad as a steamed veggie, though very bland raw.

I am not a huge fan of radish, but find they are a fine trap cop for flea beetles. If you have other plants that are attacked by flea beetles you can try planting radish to see if the flea beetles concentrate on them. If so they are easier to control without having to worry about your preferred plants.

Radishes are crunchy and refreshing. They have a little peppery zing to wake up the palate. They are a summertime treat that I often eat while gardening. Radishes should be kept moist and cold in the fridge for even short term storage, so as not to lost their crispness.

I sometimes slice them for salads. More often, I just cut them in half.

A good preparation is to butter slices of pumpernickel and cover each slice of bread with radish slices applied shingle fashion. It's good with a glass of beer. A variation on this is given in the link below.

I've recently become a fan of French Breakfast, a very old variety. It's a good grower, tasty and beautiful.

Although it is generally true that radishes are easy to grow, they are not quite foolproof. Occasionally, for some reason I'm not sure of, they fail to "bulb up". Be sure to thin them so they don't crowd each other. Cabbage root maggots can be a problem. Floating row cover will protect them from that and give you blemish free radishes.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Radish Spread Recipe

I grew french breakfast for years, and now they generally will not bulb up in my garden. It's exceeding strange, because the "winter" type radishes are not having that problem. It's surprising that they could be so different in some micro-requirement.

I've grown radishes four times, and only once did they bulb up for me, even though each time I grew them in containers with the same kind of potting mix at the same time of year. It's a mystery!

But I'm not a fan of them except sliced about 1/4" thick and added to stirfries at the last minute.

A thread started by PaulNS in 2004, and which continued on for many months, offers some clues. After a failed crop, Paul grew an excellent crop of radishes. The factors he mentioned as being different from his previous try were:

1. Late September planting (in Nova Scotia).

2. Loamier soil.

3. Rainy weather.

To find his summary, scroll down past the halfway point of the thread linked below.

I don't know the answer for sure but I believe bulbing or not bulbing must be due mostly to one or two simple factors which any one of us may do differently from time to time. I say this because success can be so variable, even for the same gardener.

Right now I'm guessing cool temperature and ample water are crucial. Both of these are helped by floating row cover in my experience. In addition, if row cover is in place at the time of sowing, it controls root maggots. Root maggot damage has spoiled several radish crops for me.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: A Radish Story

Well, I love them sliced in salads, or just to eat for the "zing." They also make a very good, quick "pickle" by slicing, salting for a bit to take out some of the liquid, and then tossing with vinegar (I use Japanese rice wine vinegar) and a dash of sugar. Also, if you have kids they're a great "starter" crop because they happen so fast. Give them a try -- and if you have lots of extra seeds radish sprouts are great too.

It seems to me, Slashy, that radishes are more fail-safe if grown in the Spring rather than Autumn. Succession planting is also likely to lead to success.

I'm agreeing with Fliptx - since water chestnuts won't grow here (I don't believe) a few radishes cut thickly add a nice crunch to a stir-fry combination. Otherwise, I cut them very thinly to add a little zip to a salad.

Steve

And you can take 2 slices of bread, butter each, place slices of radish on 1, lay the other slice on top. . . voilà , the radish sandwich.

Hey, I like watercress sandwiches, too! (And no, you don't need to trim the crust off for me.)

S'

Wow, these suggestions are awesome- I'm going to try steaming some radishes, tossing some raw ones with rice wine vinegar, and putting some on pumpernickel bread (I'm a big fan of a 'zingy' veggie that goes with beer- have gallon-jars of polish pickles in the fridge...).

It's actually mid-spring where I'm writing from (Australia) so this would be a spring/summer crop if I planted now. I'm getting the impression that I might have already left it too late, given that some people have had problems getting radish bulbs in warm weather and it's 25-30C from here on in (77-86F). I wonder... are there summer radishes the same way there are summer lettuces? I'm trying a few of those too.

Thank you all so much for the info, it's a bit of an adventure growing something you're not used to eating. And actually! I'm curious- what else have you grown that you weren't familiar with as a food, until you decided to grow it? I'd never eaten beetroot leaves before I grew them... now I think they're great!

I'd wait til mid-summer and then plant one of the long-season storage radishes.

I had good luck in the spring and pickled some...they were devine...

I grew them because they're pretty, and then needed ideas on what to do with them. My mother-in-law then took them all and is turning them into Kimchee.

Radishes will grow fine in the summer given enough water, but they will not taste great. For best taste, grow them in cool conditions. In Sydney they should grow well in late autumn, early spring and possibly also through the winter. Like one of the other posters, I like French Breakfast, which have a relatively mild taste.

I pulled a bunch of French Breakfast yesterday and they were beauties. They were the nicest I've grown, all as big as my thumb and unblemished. This fall we have had frequent soaking showers and when we didn't I watered to keep the radishes growing fast.

The daikon I raised was riddled by root maggots and unusable. Too bad -- I was planning to make kim chee. Next time I will use row cover.

This year I started adding radishes to soups, especially clear Japanese type soups with noodles. Radish leaves are much better than I expected. They are really good.

Jim

And you can make edible radish 'flowers', by
slicing down into the radish, (from the root end).
Several slices down and almost through the stem end,
all around the radish. Then you soak them in water
and they open up like a flower. Look nice on a salad.

depends on the type of radish, the cherry type likes cool soil for germination. Here I plant them about April 15th and Harvest before May 1st, Also makes a trap crop for cutworm.

You can buy a colourful "easter-egg" pack that has all sorts of colours - they look fantastic and taste great. Some of mine bolted so I let them grow out to see what they would look like, I got huge, 3ft tall radish plants loaded with seed pods. This thread is the first time i've heard the seed pods were edible, and now i'm so dissapointed I didn't try them!! Next year for sure :)

A friend of mine at the farmers market said to try grilling them with a little oilve oil and garlic. Sounds good to me, but I didn't have any radishes to try it with.

Radishes are a good indicator of soil NPK, they're germinate quick, and are done quick, in about 30 days.

grow radishes early in the season, watch, they'll tell you how much and what types of soil amendments you need to add, so you can amend your garden soil before it gets too late.

Easter-egg radishes sound lovely!
My first radish crop at least is going to have to be container-grown as the only other place I have to plant anything is in some new raised beds, and I've heard that the standard no-dig gardening mix is not good for a) seeds & b) root crops until it's had a season or two to mature.
So my plan is to fill up the cinder block holes around the edge of the raised beds & plant radish seeds into them. Or maybe every second one (can one girl eat that many radishes?). Or maybe succession sowings? I'll figure it out!

Thanks everyone for your help & suggestions, they've been great. Tried steamed radishes with butter, salt & pepper the other night- delicious! Look forward to trying more recipes... and will let you know if I manage to get a successful crop on this try :)

Like several other posters, I like radish sandwiches, with my favorite dressing as the spread... a little fresh Bibb lettuce & a few spinach leaves make it even better. To reduce the heat, peel off most of the skin before slicing... prepared that way, even my granddaughter likes them.

For the most part, I grow radishes mainly for the pods. I love them tossed in a salad, to me they are better than the roots & no slicing or peeling involved. Some commercial varieties are better for pods than others; of the most common, "Icicle" gave me the best results. The harvest window for most radish pods is very short, so you need to pick them small & often.

But for really good pods, you need to grow a variety that was bred for that purpose. "Madras Podding" does not develop an enlarged root, but gets large, tender pods that are very slow to develop fiber. They stay juicy & palatable for a long time on the plant, and did not get unbearably hot during warm weather.

They are often like a spice like pepper or mustard (which they are a type of). I like to toss radishes into a jar which has vinegar and water in it. Put it in the fridge for a day or two, and the extra heat tends to disappear and they are quite nice without being too hot. The color does tend to bleed into the water, so you end up with pink radishes, but they will keep for a very long time that way.

When I was in Italy many, many years ago, a popular starter for meals at a lunch place frequented by locals was radishes with butter. We had to look at what was going on at the other tables to catch on - they were served with a basket of bread and everyone was buttering the bread and eating bites of radishes along with it. (the popuar finish to the meal was wild strawberrier - they came in a small bowl and everyone upended over them the last of their glass of red wine)
Those black Spanish winter radishes are good with beer - just peel, slice and salt - eat like potato chips but far less calories.

Just wanted to post a follow-up to all this to say THANK YOU for all your encouragement in the radish department! I've been harvesting little handfuls of French Breakfast radishes for a week now and they're both pretty and delicious. I had two sliced on toast for breakfast this morning (spread feta cheese on the toast, sliced radishes on top, sauteed radish greens on top of that, and then, because I had some handy from hand-fertilising this morning, shredded zucchini blossom on top of that- very pretty & tasty!).

They've also starred in a couple of salads & been enjoyed (in their smaller, sweeter form) sliced plain. I've been succession planting whenever I pull them so I'm hoping for a steady crop of them for the rest of the summer, and possibly into next winter.

Anyway thanks again.

Here is a link that might be useful: French Breakfast radishes for my breakfast

Greens for breakfast?!?!

At some point - you've become a gardener.

Steve's digits

"At some point - you've become a gardener."

I shall take that as a compliment of the highest order :)

Thankyou for all the hints & pointers along the way. Becoming a gardener has been the best fun thing ever.

-Slashy

Somebody should give you a bigger piece of land - you'd be feeding the whole neighborhood, judging by your photobook!