24/01/2014. Digging up a Winter Gem: the Mooli Radish.

It was with great excitement this Saturday afternoon that I set to harvest the content of one big planter on the patio. As we had some harsh frosts, I thought I left the entire lot of those special radishes a little too long: aka an entire month.  This is according to packet reading, but as everyone knows for gardening, weather and environmental conditions obliging, it varies.

Mooli radishes were a big surprise from the onset. I never heard of them. Their little packet of seeds arrived free to thank me from my 'Sutton Seeds' order back in August. Any gardener would tell you about the sheer delight of going through the pages of a seeds and plants catalogue. It is just about dreaming of your garden next year, new projects, experiments, the reliable croppers that will never fail you, what will fill your pots then your pans ultimately. The order I did in August, was a birthday present to myself.  Something that will make me look forward for next year,  its every single season, month and day.

Opening the large packet of my future plans for the small amount of space I have was like ripping the paper of your presents as a child under the Christmas tree. Yet this time around I knew what I had like the latest trend of black tomatoes, I really wanted to grow, like three different kinds of mushroom kits as a window sill project, like fancy stripy beetroots for the planters etc, etc... No bad surprises, unlike a doll which I would never play with, when I just wished for an extension of my 'Playmobil' collection which kept me quiet all day happily playing. You know what I mean...

But there was the unexpected packet of seeds: the Mooli Radishes. Not something I tried nor would have ordered. After a Google quest which educated me about what they were, I decided to give them a good go.  In a condensed sentence, they would say, they are looking like horseradish which have a mild peppery taste. I planted them on my birthday, hoping for a surprise that keeps giving.

Indeed they did. The harvest showed a good crop for the space of the container and despite the frosty bitty nights we had. I could not resist trying one as soon as the all lot had received TLC Kitchen makeover. I could not be a Mooli virgin any longer. It had to be tried and tasted. It was delightfully a delicate flavour of pepper. It was not your heavy root vegetable from the midst of winter. It was tasty and light, just raw.

Those white gems gave me plenty of culinary projects:

*Mooli curry.
*Mooli paratha.
*Mooli and other veg pickles.

But also it gave me a new year resolution: at my every seeds order in the future, I will add that little wild card of the unknown and let myself be pleasantly surprise by it.

Make your life an adventure.