More Vegetables: Radishes

We drove through the little of village of McClure, Ohio, yesterday, and discovered it's the home of an annual Radish Festival. There's a big, red radish painted on the road at the entrance to the village park and inside the park, there's a building displaying a sign that lists past chairmen of the Radish Festival. It seems to be a big deal in this little town

It also seems like there are limited options with radishes: you can eat them raw, or slice them into salads. I once tasted cream of radish soup (chicken broth and cream spiked with shredded radishes) and we could imagine pickling them or making a relish to eat with roast beef or salmon. But none of these ideas would use very many of the peppery little roots.

Radishes are attractive to look at and they come in a variety of shapes ranging from long to globular, and a few colors --- red, white and black. Do they select a Radish Queen in McClure and crown her with a wreath of radishes? Is she required to wear a red dress? I know about the Garlic Festival in Watsonville, California, and there are Tomato Festivals and Pumpkin Festivals. But a Radish Festival?

When we got home I looked up the Radish Festival in McClure, and found there are more things to do with radishes than I'd imagined. Here's a report on the festival that took place in June, 2005.