Blauer Winter radish

(Raphanus sativus)

An excellent radish from Germany with a beautiful violet skin and white flesh. Spicy, crisp, and keeps well through the winter.

If you are only familiar with spring radishes, this is a new food to try; in the words of Emily Horton, writing for the Washington Post, “radishes are at their most pronounced, and their most versatile, in fall and winter… They differ so greatly in character from spring radishes as to seem another vegetable entirely. They eschew subtlety with dense, crisp flesh, a faintly nutty sweetness and an untamed heat that, depending on the variety and growing conditions, can vary from mildly spicy to wildly pungent.” A brilliant vegetable to add to the winter menu, raw (ideally on bread and butter) cooked (try grating and stir-frying with salt – reduces the heat and makes an excellent side dish with chapatis and dal), or pickled.

This is the same radish as Hild’s Blauer Herbst und Winter.