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...of radish and mustard
greens
Look'in for Radish
Greens:
I believe that I now have my perfect radish for greens. Out of a
selection of oriental radishes these produced nice radish greens.
Tender, smooth-leaf, juicy and tender, mild not hot but with the zip of
the radish flavor. The way I like them. If the little red
salad radishes that we buy at the store had smooth leaves instead of
the fuzzy; even prickly leaves they do have, salad connoisseurs would
have found out ages ago that the "greens" are better than the roots in
salad. Many people already have discovered that the young seed
pods are even better than the roots are in salad. The greens make
fine salads alone or in combination with lettuce. Add a little
oil and vinegar and you have a great salad. Some radishes used
for greens in asia have small woody roots but this one produces very
large roots.
My leaf radish produces little white roots that grow into huge white
roots. This is only the tip of the iceberg. The bulk of the
root is below ground. Evergreen Seeds (find on the internet)
based in California specializes in offering seeds of oriental
crops. I grew my leaf radishes from seeds that I ordered several
years ago and they have been crossing and segregating into variations
ever since. Most of their radishes are now hybrid kinds. I
don't know why. Save the seeds anyway or if you aren't a seed
saver, you ought to patronize the company since they are nice folks and
provide good service.
Mustard Greens
I also grew these plants (above) recently from old seed I bought
several years ago off the rack. It was marketed as a leaf radish
(Raphanus sativus) by Ferry Morse Health Smart line of seeds. I
seem to remember the cultivar "Vit". While Hong Vit is a radish
cultivar used for producing "baby greens"; the plants were we grew from
the seed were mustards as in "mustard greens" (Brassica juncea);
possibly "mustard spinach" (Brassica perviridis). I am still
trying to figure what exactly they are. They are pungent like
mustards and cook up to mild "greens". I'm not sure whether I
would use them as salad greens; maybe when young. The
plants mature to produce elongate leaves unlike my other
mustards. The nice thing about these plants is that they produced
ample greens and still are in early December but they also throw
flowers and seed stalks intermittantly through their first year and so
you can get a nice amount of seeds without the entire crop
bolting. A nice sustainable crop.
These are the mustards that grow all over my garden. They
reseed and produce large bright green hardy plants and plenty of
cutting greens with a pungent mustard "kick". They also produce
large white roots which can be harvested and sliced to add mustard
flavor to a salad. I don't know what this mustard is since I
don't have a lot of experience growing mustard greens. I am a bit
confused over the large white root which is tender and turnip
like. Of course, mustards, turnips and radishes are closely
related and are in the Brassica Family. What may be Ferry Morses
radish is my mustard and maybe my mustard is another's turnip.
It's just so confusing. Go to this site and maybe you can figure
the Brassicas out...I will leave this to another day: http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Brassica.html
