On My Plate: Radishes
Radishes are one of the fastest growing vegetables, and one of the earliest to appear in farmers markets each year. The plant remains largely unchanged from the earliest records of its cultivation.
The radish is possibly the world’s most perfect food. Its perfection is not based on nutrition; although very low in calories and packing a lot of vitamin C, a radish is 95% water. Rather, the radish’s perfection stems from its pedigree.
Some prehistoric person pulled a bright red globe out of the ground, ate it, and found it tasty. Radish consumption hasn’t changed much since then. What other prehistoric food has been so unaltered through the millennia of human eating?
Archaeological evidence of radish cultivation extends back 5,000 years in Egypt, where it was a staple for the laborers who built the pyramids. By recorded history, the radish was well known in Europe and Asia. The ancient Greeks and Romans cultivated radishes, as did people at that time throughout East and South Asia.
Radishes became common in Europe in medieval times, especially the smaller varieties familiar to us. Shakespeare’s rotund buffoon Falstaff uses “radish” more than once as an insult. He swears “I’m a bunch of radishes” were he to lie about fighting for King Henry, and he says that a judge looks like a “forked radish.” The French have an expression “I don’t even have a radish,” which means “I am broke.”
The radish was one of the first crops introduced to the Americas by the Europeans. La Noche de los Rábanos (The Night of the Radishes), in Oaxaca, Mexico, on Dec. 23, is the only North American festival I have discovered that celebrates radishes, recalling their introduction by Spanish colonists.
Radish is an especially fast-growing plant, typically only 3-to-4 weeks, hence its availability this early in the growing season from Jennifer Bayne’s 7 Wonders Farm at the Oxford Farmers Market. In acknowledgement of this feature, the word “radish” comes from the Greek “raphanus,” which means quick-growing.
Pliny recorded that some ancient radishes grew to more than 40 pounds, though agricultural records from 2,000 years ago indicate that many shapes and sizes were being cultivated in the Roman Empire. By the Middle Ages most were our size, although the most common were elongated until around 1940, when globe-shaped varieties became more popular.
It is remarkable that over thousands of years through many cultures, recipes for altering radishes are essentially nonexistent. You really only have two choices with radishes. One is to slice them and mix them with lettuce and other items in a salad. The radishes provide a peppery bite to contrast with the smooth mild lettuce. However, I notice that guests often leave them uneaten, so with company I usually serve radishes in a separate dish.
Alternatively, simply set out a bowl of radishes to accompany the pre-dinner drink, as is common in France. The radish is God’s gift to snackers in France, a Seattle Times food critic has written. Annual per capita consumption of radishes is 3.3 pounds in France, compared to only 1.3 pounds in the United States. It beats the other popular choice, a bowl of olives, because radishes leave no pits for guests to discreetly discard. On the other hand, the French like to smear their wonderful rich butter on radishes, thereby wiping out the low-cal benefit.
Over 100 varieties of radishes are cultivated around the world. I am reminded that at our wedding reception (many years ago), catered by a Russian immigrant, three varieties of radishes were served.
James Rubenstein is president of the Board of Directors for the Oxford Free Press and professor emeritus of geography at Miami University.
