Someone else is living my dream / rampant radishes

I had a lovely trip over to Central Otago this weekend to visit friends, got to sit in the sunshine too, fantastic!  I also got to visit their mum, a lady who is currently living my dream and came back to Dunedin full of envy and determination.

I wish I’d had my camera or phone with me to take some photos but I forgot. They live on a cherry orchard and have huge veggie patches with rows of wonderful looking veg, including some of the biggest onions I have ever seen.  Husband did snap a picture of these on his phone which, alas, I didn’t think to steal for further pictures.  Apart from the vegetables and orchard, she has a flock of the cutest, fluffiest chickens, this was the main source of my envy.  One even has the name Mr Fluffy!  These chooks had a big run with access to the orchard, they looked like they had a great life.  I did get to enjoy some of their fresh eggs in an omelette on my return though.  One day … one day I will have chickens!



Hard to get an idea of scale from a photo but these giant
onions were grown in groups and were humungous!

 

As we were chatting I spotted her radishes and asked if she had any recipe tips, I've only had them sliced in salads.  Next thing I know we are sitting down to a plate of raw radishes and salt, and do you know what, it would have been perfect with a cold beer on a hot day :)

 

Right, so this is confession time ... I have been cheating on you, with another blog!! I entered a Yates gardening blog competition and they sent me a free packet of radish seeds for signing up. I put these in amongst the carrot seeds and a couple of days later I walked past and was cursing the weeds for reappearing so quickly and then realised it was the radishes already! Two weeks after putting the seeds in I was picking radishes.  Three weeks later I am picking full size, bright red radishes and have more than I can cope with, whoops!  I can definitely recommend these as any easy fast crop ... it is the first time I have eaten them let alone grown them.  I will definitely be growing these again, just in slightly smaller quantities.
 

Please excuse the weeds, they are growing as fast as the radishes!



They really are so easy to grow so I am not going to bother to take much time explaining how.  Get a bit of bare land, make a shallow groove, scatter seeds, or a mix of carrot and radish seeds along the groove and cover shallowly with soil.  Sit back and watch them grow, vrooooom!  They can be planted pretty much all year round too.

 

They add a great bit of colour and peppery crunch to salads or asian stir fries, but please let me know if you have any other ideas ... please!!!! Umm would anyone like some radishes?!?!

Pretty salad from the garden, mixed lettuce with sliced radishes and pansies.