One of the best parts of summer is when you are finally able to harvest something from the garden! All the hard work pays off and you get to enjoy the blessings of your efforts.

My husband built some beautiful garden boxes for our family this year, and we have all kinds of things growing! We really want to foster a love of gardening in our children, and so we have tried to involve them as much as we can. Part of that process was letting them choose what we actually planted. We went through a whole list of options, and one of the things all my kids wanted to grow was radishes!

I couldn’t help but chuckle because I wasn’t sure how my children would feel about actually eating radishes, but I loved their enthusiasm! And radishes are actually a great first plant to grow, because they grow relatively fast compared to other vegetables- 4 weeks or so from planting to eating! When you have 5 young children that’s definitely helpful! My kids ask daily when they can eat stuff from the garden, so having to field this question for 4 weeks instead of a few months is definitely helpful for this mama!

When the day came to pull the radishes out of the garden, my kids were SO EXCITED. You would have thought we had just announced a trip to Disneyland! They were thrilled as they carefully plucked the radishes from the garden and held up their bounty for the camera to see.

Then it came time to try them…. That was a different story ;). My 4 year old took one bite, looked at me with disgust in her eyes and said “These are disgusting.”. My 6 year old wasn’t very thrilled either. However, my 8 year old thought they were fine, and my 2 year old didn’t say anything- but he kept eating it, so that’s a win in my book!

Radishes are definitely a unique vegetable- and again, they are very satisfying to grow because you can reap them just 4 weeks later! In addition, they’ll help you with your Vitamin C and fiber intake, they can help prevent cancer and yeast infections, and they’re low calorie and low in fat, so they’re a great snack to munch on when you’re trying to curb cravings! They also help keep you hydrated and your skin looking beautiful- definitely a good summertime snack! They also help prevent diabetes, improve heart health, regulate blood pressure and boost the immune system- need I say more?

I love them because they do have a spicy little kick to them, but their flavor is not very strong, so they are the perfect way to add a little crunch and kick to your green salads! We also tried a new recipe this year to help my kids try them a couple different ways, and my 8 year old loved it! Garlic Roasted Radishes- is there anything that garlic can’t do? ;) For copyright purposes, I can’t share the recipe here, but follow this link for the recipe! https://therealfoodrds.com/garlic-roasted-radishes/

Do you grow radishes? What’s your favorite way to eat them? I’d love to hear!