Fast Facts
Fast growing crop: Radishes are a fast growing crop and grow from seed to eating plant in 25 days, making them the first UK field-grown salad vegetables to come into season in April. - Did you know radishes can cure ills? Radishes can help with stomach ache and hiccups (but too many can make you burp …. !)
- Radish Oil: Radish seeds were an important source of oil in Ancient Egypt before olive trees were introduced to the country. Certain varieties of radish are still grown for oil production today. Although not popular for human consumption (the flavour is very strong) they have potential as a bio-fuel.
- Night of the Radishes: In Oaxaca in Mexico, December 23rd is known as “The Night of the Radishes” (Noche de Rabanos). The festival features depictions of all kinds of subjects, including nativity scenes - all carved from radishes!
- Radishes in literature: In the novel ‘Gone with the Wind’ it was after attempting to eat a radish – the only food she could get – that a starving Scarlett O’Hara declared, “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.”
- Peter Rabbit – a naughty radish fan: Our very own Peter Rabbit enjoyed his radishes and famously ate a rather long variety known as the Long Scarlet in an illustration from the Beatrix Potter book.
- Hot weather, hot radishes: If it’s a long, hot summer, you get hotter radishes and similarly when it’s milder you get cooler radishes.
- Radish – the one calorie snack: 1 radish = 1 calorie, it’s as simple as that, so snack away guilt free!
- Ancient Wages: Radishes, onions and garlic were paid as ‘wages’ to the Ancient Egyptian labourers who built the Pyramids.
- Giant radishes: Some varieties of radish can grow up to 3ft long, weighing 100lbs (45kg). Needless to say, you’re unlikely to see these in your local supermarket!
