Star of the week

Red Stemmed Radish 

Pods of leaf radish are full of
flavour if picked small.

Leaf radish flowers. Edible & beautiful

The star of week one is red stemmed leaf radish Sai Sai which is flowering unseasonably early in our Devon field.

The leaf radish is a fantastic plant. It germinates well and suffers little from pests and diseases if planted in cool seasons. The leaves have a vibrant red stem and taste of fresh radish rather than pungent mustard. The base forms a large inedible radish but the leaves keep coming all winter if regularly picked. I grow these in the polytunnel but the photo above is taken outside yesterday. The flowers when they come are white or pale pink and keep going for weeks on soft spicy edible stem. Then comes the pods which are fabulous. A wonderful crunch and radish flavour. The plants produce loads of seeds for the following year or will self seed if you let them. What more do you want?