The humble radish

The farmers in our valley have taken mightily to planting grass seed for the last few years. It's an easy and profitable crop, I suppose, but I hate it. It is not picturesque at all, and in the spring and early summer it causes almost unbearable allergies for many of us who live here, both when the seed sets and when it is harvested. Once in a while, the fields near our house will be planted with wheat, which is easy on the eyes and doesn't seem to cause the allergies.

This spring, a new crop came to town and no one could identify it. My friend and I were walking past a field of it one day and wondering aloud about it. A man was walking his dog and told us, very authoritatively, that it was a dry crop of beets for seed. Well, I was thrilled to be in the know, and proceeded to tell everyone I met about it.

The plants grew rapidly and soon the fields were a white swath of gorgeousness.

Photos began to show up on my facebook newsfeed and I was happy to inform people that they were beets.

However, as time went by, I began to wonder about the veracity of my information. The roots didn't look like beets and the greens grew very quickly, so I had a little talk with Google. It took longer than my usual research forays, but I finally identified the plants as radishes. Not your usual little pink globes, mind you, but big old white roots, almost like daikon radishes. 

It wasn't too long before the flowers disappeared and seed pods took their place.

Millions and millions of rather fat seed pods.

This cover crop is amazing. It grows rapidly, suppresses weeds with its quick canopy cover, doesn't need irrigating, and pulls huge amounts of nutrients from deep in the soil so that later crops can utilize them. If the roots are left to rot over winter, they aereate the soil and allow for water penetration the following year. The roots also break up compacted soil. 

Radish is a brassica, and plants produce a compound which is toxic to soil-borne pests (such as nematodes) and pathogens. The greens can be used for forage or the seed for oil, depending on which variety is grown.

Why do I care about this stuff?

I don't know. I just do. It eats at me until I have found answers to all of the questions.

And now you know too.

I would have to disagree with William Andrus Alcott, who said, quite famously in "The Young Housekeeper," that "radishes, though often eaten, are miserable things."

I have to pronounce radishes to be quite marvelous.

As long as you don't ask me to eat one.