When we returned from vacation every single radish was ready to be picked. Radishes are a fast growing crop that can be fun to have in your garden because they outpace every other plant, besides the weeds! The down side to that is when they are ready they are ready all at once.

How do you preserve your radish crop?

There are a few different ways to store radishes that will retain their crispiness:

• Slice off the tops and bottoms, wash and store them in water in the refrigerator. This will keep them fresh for about a week.
• Store in a sand box in a cool place, which is also a good way to store carrots.
• Cook them like a carrot or potato. When radishes are cooked it takes most of the spice out of them.
• Pickle or ferment them.

I’m not a big radish eater but Lucian picked out the seed for his row in the garden and he wanted radishes. No amount of coaxing could talk him out of it. He picked out white icicle radishes and was very excited when they were ready to harvest. Did he like them? NO, “There too spicy!” Were his exact words.

So…….it was time to get creative with storing radishes. I decided to try to pickle them.

I found this Ball recipe for sweet pickled radishes and decided to give it a try. We’ll see how they taste in a few weeks when I crack them open.

• 1/2 pound sliced radishes
• 1/2 cup white or apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. mustard seed
• 1 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1 bay leaf

1. Pack sliced radishes in a hot 1 pint jar. bring all other ingredients to a boil and add to jar.
2. Wipe rim clean, place lids, and hand tighten band. Let cool. Chill before serving and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 months.

I am more of an impromptu cook and I always change recipes. For starters, I had to quadruple this recipe for the amount of radishes I had. I also did not have mustard seed in my cupboard so I used ground mustard instead. I used 1/2 tsp. ground mustard rather than 1 tsp. mustard seeds. I thought 1 tsp ground black pepper was a little much so I measured in about 3/4 of a tsp. instead. Finally, I put dill weed into two of the jars to test out different flavors. I also put the jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes to seal them.

In 4-6 weeks I am going to open a jar to see if the pickled radish experiment was a success or not. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they taste delicious when I open the lid. If they do I’ll plan on traditional red radishes for next year. Not to judge a jar of pickled radishes by their appearance but I think red radishes will be prettier.