Growing Radishes

Delicious crunchy radishes are one of the first of the garden plants out of the ground in the spring. They can be planted as soon as the ground thaws. Radishes require ground temperatures of 40 degrees or so to germinate. If planted in close proximity to adequate growing conditions the radishes will come up when conditions are right. They are basically on autopilot and will take care of themselves.

I've planted radishes in early march and had good results with them growing. If a few get frozen there are typically enough to still have a good crop. Radish seed is also pretty inexpensive in bulk.

Another trick we use is to plant a light crop of radishes over the top of carrot seed. This is a good marker for where the carrot seed is planted. The carrots germinate slowly and are just coming up when the radishes are ready to harvest. The radishes provide some protection for the tiny carrots and are easily harvested or eliminated if they are not needed.

Don't forget to plant succession crops every few weeks. Most people assume that radishes don't grow in the heat of the summer. But we have had good luck growing them in compost with adequate water. They need to be harvested before they get too large or they can get hot.

Radishes are very fun for young children to plant and pick. Even if they are too spicy for young tastes they are still a lot of fun to grow.

Radish seed has very long germination so you can buy bulk ahead and save. Get enough for 3-5 years and you should be fine.

Black Garlic - Join the Dark Side

The process for black garlic originated in Korea. It is the same garlic that we offer as fresh garlic (typically the variety Music) but fermented at elevated temperature and humidity.

It is very probiotic and has 2x the health benefits of fresh garlic.

It has a wonderful mild garlic flavor with overtones of molasses.

I am making commercial quantities of black garlic this year.

Let's look at how this works.

My TEDx Talk V

Continuing the transcript of my TED talk on "Farmers Market as a Business Incubator".

My TEDx Talk IV

 Continuing the transcript of my TED talk on "Farmers Market as a Business Incubator".

My TEDx Talk III

Continuing the transcript of my TED talk on "Farmers Market as a Business Incubator".

My TEDx Talk II

Continuing the transcript of my TED talk on "Farmers Market as a Business Incubator".

Magnesium 101, The Miracle of Magnesium

Magnesium is essential to more than 300 biochemical processes in the human body and over 3,700 magnesium binding sites. The functions the need magnesium include:

• Blood pressure regulation
• Protein synthesis
• Neurological function
• Blood sugar control
• Energy metabolism
• Antioxidant production

Most of the US population is deficient in magnesium.

This post is about magnesium rich natural food sources...

Buckwheat pan cakes with Blue Berries

I've been doing a lower carb diet lately and I wanted to make pancakes for breakfast last Sunday morning.

Buckwheat is about half the carbs of regular flour.

I threw in some blue berries for good measure.

Here is the recipe.

The Marker

Radishes germinate and mature so quickly that we often use them as a marker for other slower germinating crops.

Crops like...

Carrots

I planted our third planting of carrots today. Marked them with over seeding of radishes. I'm trying out a new variety from Amsterdam, along with our standard candy carrots. Planted about 500 feet of row in a double row.