Wednesday, September 17, 2008

1 for 5--So far

You may recall that at the end of July (the very end) we planted our first late season crop. The seeds that I was able to get my eager little hands on were of the lettuce, onion, radish, pea, and carrot varieties. I was not expecting too much, because we did plant at the end of the season even for some of these varieties, and for some reason, I forget the cause, soon after we planted them I got the idea that they had probably all been washed away. Since we had started so late, and because we had used nearly all of the seeds, we figured we would try again next year.So imagine my surprise when I went out to the garden earlier this week and saw something of interest besides the pumpkin and rhubarb leaves:




Of course, you can see far more in this picture than I could originally see--I just saw the leaves, but I was thinking, "Is that radishes?" And said as much to my husband. By now I was very excited, but did not know if they were ready for harvest, so I waited a few more days, and took this picture before actually pulling one out:




And then, of course, I had to try one, so check it out:


Of course, I washed it off before I ate it, and it was delicious. We will have to do more harvesting soon. Maybe I'll find something else thriving in the kingdom of the pumpkins (aka my garden) but even if I don't, I'll consider this a success in my quest for being better at food storage. If I learn how/when to grow my food, and become more and more proficient at it, I will be effectively perpetuating my food storage--finding room to store seeds is often a lot easier than finding room to store the final product (though I recommend storing both if you have the means. :)

Why should you care about my radishes? It makes me think of this:

You don't have to know everything to try something.

If you have been reading my blog for very long, than you will notice that I have a lot of skills to work on. But I am trying to work on them. Some of these skills (like canning) require more equipment and knowledge than I currently possess, and those are on the wish list. I'm working on other ones, though, and gardening is an example. 1 for 5 is not a fantastic ratio (I'm still hoping for the onions, especially), but it's 1 more than I would have had had I not tried at all. Try gardening--you might like it. You may be really proficient at gardening and/or canning and/ or cooking with staples and/or name a skill, but if there is something that would improve your food storage that you would like to learn, go ahead and try it. Even if you have a miserable success ratio (oh, say like 1 for 5) you will still have more than what you started out with. And if you only end up with knowledge of how to do something better the next time, you still end up with something in the gain column.

Now, I really hope that my children will like radishes... :)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never liked radishes until I grew them myself. Store bought ones don't taste near as good, in my opinion. Congrats on the radish harvest!

Marie said...

Kathie--Thanks, and thanks for your comment! I do have to say that I enjoyed this one a little more than the average radish. It's pretty fun to just take it from the garden to eating it in very little time!

Anonymous said...

We all learn by doing Marie, and from each other. I think you are going great guns, the skills all come in time. Even the best gardeners have failure rates, don't let them tell you otherwise lol

WTG!

Blessings:)

Marie said...

Molly--Thanks for your encouraging words! It is true that I feel more confident about doing things once I actually start trying, and I do learn a lot from other people. Not happy exactly that other people have failure rates, but it is kind of nice to know that I'm not alone when things don't quite work out... :) Thanks for your comment!

riverwalker said...

Trying shredding the radishes and adding to a salad - this might help get the kids used to the flavor (which can be quite strong).

I've had more than my share of failures in the past and with a little practice it gets easier. Don't be so hard on yourself! You're doing just fine.

BTW, white distilled vinegar to answer your question. Sorry about the confusion. I use a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in a glass of apple juice as a pick-me-up.Been readin' ya, just a little short on time to comment.

RW

Marie said...

Riverwalker--Shredding the radishes is a great idea--they do have a little bite to them. And thanks for the great info about vinegar, etc., because if I don't know, I do tend to err on the safe side if I think that foodstuff is outdated, and out it goes.
I appreciate your comment! I'm impressed that you find time to post all the time, much less comment, considering all that's going on in the aftermath of Ike. Our thoughts are with everyone affected!

riverwalker said...

Thanks for the kind words. I know everyone appreciates it. I thought about doing a post on a day in the life of Riverwalker but everyone would be worried that I was fixin' to have a heart attack.HaHa!

Just square them radishes off and run them across a cheese grater - works pretty good - easier than leavin' 'em round. Throw in some grated carrots also - help the flavors blend. bet the kids will love it!

RW

Marie said...

Riverwalker--From what I've read, the situation there is pretty demanding. I'm sure that all of your hard work is appreciated.
I'm thinking that a carrot/radish mixture may be a winning combination--I know that they like carrots!

WrethaOffGrid said...

Don't forget about letting a few raddishes go to seed, besides having seeds for next year, the seed pods are delicious!

Wretha

Marie said...

Wretha--That's a great idea--I actually hadn't thought about it, so thanks for the reminder. I didn't know about the seed pods, so that will be interesting. Thanks for your comment!

WrethaOffGrid said...

No prob Marie, I actually like the seed pods much better than the radishes themselves, I let one plant go completely so I could harvest the seeds, I let 3 or 4 plants just make seed pods to eat, don't let the seed pods get too big, they will get too hot (just like the radishes), pick them as you want them, I love just to pop them into my mouth right in the garden, don't eat the tail, it's too tough. You can eat them raw (my favorite) or cook them. By the time you get radish seed pods, the radish root is much too tough (and hot) to eat, so don't even try it. Let me know when you get to try it, I'm sure you will like them. :)

Wretha

Marie said...

Wretha--I am definitely going to try that--thanks for the detailed info. I don't mind the radishes a little hot, but I will stay away from the root...thanks for your comment!