"Plant a radish, get a radish, never any doubt..."

So goes one of the songs from the musical, The Fantastiks. I finally found out what the mystery row of plants was in the garden -- radishes. I guess that is what we planted, since that is what we got.

Radishes are not really my favorite, but I did eat the two home grown that were ready yesterday. I hadn't properly thinned the row since I could not remember what was in that row (I guess that is the result of planting a garden with someone else, I did not do all the planting, nor did I make all the decisions about what to plant). But, I hopefully will be able to harvest a few at a time and make some more room for the rest of them. Maybe it will keep the production a little more even rather than having a row of radishes ready all at one. If that happens, I certainly won't be eating them all, they will be parceled out.

I do remember planting radishes as a kid -- they grew fast, so we kids liked them. Well, we liked to watch them grow and harvest them a little more than we liked eating them. Radishes always seemed to be the vegetable on the holiday relish tray that were left over (unless my Uncle Jim was at the festivities--he seems to be the one who liked radishes). When I was older I liked peeling the red ones into little roses, but that was the extent to which I liked them. Usually we planted the icicle variety when there were radishes in the garden. These radishes, though, are standard, red radishes, fairly mild. I added them to my salad at lunch today without even carving them into roses. And I liked them. It's probably been years since I have intentionally eaten a radish and growing them seemed to give me a good excuse to try them again. A good reminder to try things you think you don't like every once in a while--you might surprise yourself. I sure did.

And that's a good lesson, even for those of us who are no longer kids and think our tastes have settled. Trying something different, even if not new is a good thing. It's especially important when trying to eat ethically since there might be local varieties to try or things that were once part of our diet that we are trying to replace with a better, more ethical, alternative.

I have had this song from The Fantastiks in my head ever since the discovery of the mystery row's crop. It continues, "That's why I love vegetables you know what they're about. Plant a turnip, get a turnip, just you wait and see, that's why I love vegetables you know what they will be ... A man who plants a garden is a very happy man." Ain't that the truth? (Not that I am planting turnips!)