Radishes

May’s NH Harvest of the Month: radishes!

Radishes are members of the cabbage family. Radish seeds can germinate in as little as three days and be ready for eating in under four weeks from planting. Radishes are a type of root vegetable, commonly eaten whole or sliced on salads. Radishes are crispy and crunchy and have a peppery flavor. There are five common radish varieties grown in the United States. The most well-known variety is the Red Globe radish which has red and white coloring.

Radishes may be round or elongated and they come in a wide range of colors, although the interior flesh is almost always white. Round Black Spanish is an old heirloom variety dating back to 1548. It grows to a larger size than the small red, pink, or white varieties, and has rough, dark brown to black skin over its roots, with a hotter flavor.

The daikon is a very large, elongated, white radish from Asia that grows to 14 inches long. Though many people think daikon radishes were cultivated in Japan, they actually originated in China. Interestingly, the Chinese word for carrot translates literally to “giant foreign radish.”

A Guatemalan radish salad, called Picado De Rabano, is found on nearly every table there. In Iraq, radishes are widely cultivated. Mooli Lachha is an Indian-style grated radish salad.

This webpage includes a variety of educational materials, activities, recipes, and more about radishes for use at home, in youth or family programming, in the classroom, and in the cafeteria. For more New Hampshire Harvest of the Month resources for May, click here.

Lesson Plan for Radishes

Developed in partnership with UNH Extension, NH Farm to School, and the UNH Education department, the Harvest Lessons lesson plan and curricular activities can be used by education professionals to incorporate grains into dynamic, long-lasting learning in the classroom and other education-based settings.