o.k. today we were out in our devasted pumpkin patch (which we tilled under approx. two months ago and found 50 pounds of the biggest long white radishes we've ever seen. 12 inchs long and an 1-1/2 in diameter. My dad thought they were wild (we haven't planted radishes in that area ever). what gives..also what do we do with these things.. they taste great !!

-- scott (sbitzer@columbus.rr.com), October 21, 2001

Answers

Do a search on "daikon radish", take a look at pictures and see if that's what you've got - sounds like it, although they can go bigger. That should also give you recipes. Used in oriental food - a lot in stir fry - quite mild taste.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), October 21, 2001.

Bingo....Them are it !! We are beginning to think that a prank is being played on us.

-- scott (sbitzer@columbus.rr.com), October 21, 2001.

Most pranks should be so nice. If that's the case, check out what other plants are growing there - they may have given you a whole slew of oriental greens as well. That's about my favourite food - steamed chinese leaf vegetables with oyster sauce. Thing I like about a lot of the oriental vegetables is that they've been selected for millenia to produce FAST. Hard to get anything which will give you as big a yield of solid food as fast as daikon; and some of the greens are ready to eat in a month.

-- Don Armstrong (from Australia) (darmst@yahoo.com.au), October 21, 2001.

just where is all these radishes at. My crop went to top this year for some reason and I love them. They are better than a spring radish. They are in the winter radish family along with the black spanish and german beer radish. There s also a red Chinese but I don't care for them. They are to strong. They kind of stay with you for a day or two.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), October 22, 2001.