With such an abundant harvest of radishes in such a short period of time, I’ve been somewhat hard pressed to figure out what to do with our surplus. Radishes lose moisture and shrivel within a day or so of harvest, and leaving them in the ground causes them to split in the middle and invites insect attacks.
Then it occurred to me that pickling them might not be a bad idea. Several years ago I found myself pondering the potential use of pickle brine once the pickles are all gone. After all, these beautiful glass jars must be good for something besides fodder for landfills.
Radishes have a strong taste that isn’t agreeable to everyone, but a pickled cucumber has a taste quite distinct from a sliced cucumber. I imagine the result will be much the same with a pickled radish.
The pickle brine in these Clausen jars is not certified organic, so I’m quite sure that I am violating the organic integrity of my radishes by mixing them in with such circumspect chemicals as “Calcium Chloride“; but if its good enough for the non-organic cucumbers we eat from the jar, then its certainly good enough for our organic, home-grown radishes.
In another week or so I’ll have a verdict on the quality of the final product. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for a new culinary discovery.
2 responses to “Pickled Radishes?”
so how’d it go? 😛
[…] Almost two years ago, I wrote about an attempt to pickle radishes just by slicing them and putting them, mixed with the brine, in a Clausen pickle jar. Recently, on the comment thread for that post, Rob asks "So how’d it go?". Good question, Rob. I admit, I’ve been negligent in my duty to report on the success or failure of that particular experiment. Well, Rob, and anybody else out there who is curious, it went very well. My 8 year old niece still asks about the pickled radishes, she wants to know when we are going to have them again. My speculation about the pickled radishes was correct, pickling takes away the spicy-bitter taste that raw radishes are known for, and gives it a unique flavor very different from both a raw radish and a pickled cucumber. If you have an abundance of radishes from your garden, then save the pickle brine from your jars and try this. It works! But take note, I would say one pickling session is about the most mileage you will get out of a single jar of left-over juice. […]