The little red radish is so easy to grow that kindergarten teachers use it as fail-safe way of introducing kids to the wonders of nature. Just three days after the seed is sown in damp soil in some sun, little green tips appear. And, a few weeks later, the little red, pink or white ping pong balls are ready to harvest and eat. The flavour, on the bitter side, with a sharp pungency that pleases adults (especially with a sprinkle of sea salt, or an anchovy dip and a cold beer), doesn't go down so well with the budding young gardeners, whose typical response is 'yuck'.
Adult fans grow red radish, or spring radish, both as a crop and as a marker of where they sowed more slow-growing vegetables, such as carrots. All you need to do is thin the seedlings after the second true leaf appears (give each at least 5cm space to allow a nicely swollen root to develop) and keep up the water to maintain good sweet flavour. Then pull them out and eat them - a cross-section of different colours gives a good effect on the plate - just as the carrots (which like the same light, friable soil as radish) are looking for some more room.
So - handy, tasty, but not a major product of the Australian vegetable garden. Gardeners in Japan though have a different view of the radish. Of course, they also have a different radish. The long white daikon is an ancient Japanese crop and now accounts for about 25 per cent of the entire Japanese vegetable crop.
The first westerner to see one of these vegetables is thought to have been Commodore Matthew Perry of the US Navy who visited Japan in 1853 and marvelled at the huge white radishes weighing in at up to 9kg and nearly a metre in length. The current sumo champion of the long white radish is the Sakurajima Mammoth which gets to 20 kilograms under ideal conditions (seed catalogues that list it don't tell you how to harvest it - with a bobcat?). These vegetable gorgons sound more suitable as weapons than food source, and definitely bring up some handling issues in the normal-sized kitchen.
The less extreme versions of the Asian radishes reach 20-45cm in length, and though they take longer to grow than the little red radish, repay the home gardener with great versatility. To grow them you need fairly deep friable soil (lumpy bits will cause the roots to distort), a sunny position and regular watering to prevent the flavour intensifying to an overly hot bitterness. Most varieties are sown in late summer and autumn, maturing through winter. They are a true cold-season crop and can be left in the ground when all around is frost.
As they grow pick the young leaves for use in salads, stir-fries or oriental soups. Depending on the variety, the root will be ready to harvest 45-60 days after sowing, though you can leave them in the ground until you want to cook them for dinner. And if you use just half of the radish you've freshly picked, it will keep wrapped in the fridge, for weeks. The root itself is sliced, diced, grated, souped, pickled, and if you're very clever, carved into a chrysanthemum. Even the seed pod can be eaten - the larger the radish, the larger, tastier and more succulent the pod. Pick the pods when still young enough to snap crisply in two, and use like a spicy version of snow pea in salads and stir-fries. Just one of your radishes allowed to run to seed will provide a plentiful harvest of pods in succession over several months. In India, a variety called 'Rat's Tail Radish' is grown specifically for its exceptionally long (up to 60cm!) pods.
King's Seed lists some interesting varieties of Asian radish, including Aomaru-Koshin, the Chinese radish. The outer skin is green and the inside is a rich magenta with white rays through the flesh. For pure white flesh with a crisp texture choose 'Tokinashi' which can be sown all-year, being less likely than most to bolt in the heat. Whatever colour, size and shape you fancy, the radishes are worth some space in the garden, if only to find out what all those Japanese gardeners are so keen about.
The long white radish of Asian cuisine is known by a garden-full of nom-des-plumes. Here's an identification guide for unravelling your recipes. China: loh-bak India: mooli Indonesia: lobak Japan: daikon Korea: moo Malaysia: lobak Philippines: labanos Sir Lanka: rabu Thailand: phakkat-hua Vietnam: cu cai trang
Powered By WEBHEAD