I’ve sung the song before. If at first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again. We’ve eaten black radishes, red radishes, pretty radishes, ugly radishes, radishes that look like watermelons and radishes that don’t. And now this – purple Tritan radishes. Up there on the vegetable beauty index with delicata squash and romanesco. These radishes have milder bite than your typical red radishes, which is probably why 2/3 of the kids went for it. As for me, I’m just patting myself on the back for having the persistence to try enough radishes for one of my kids to say, “you know what mom? radishes are great”.
ME: Guys, who knows what these are?
LAUREN: Cabbage.
ME: No, it’s not cabbage. That’s a good guess though!
EMMA: Onion?
ME: What an amazing guess! But it’s not an onion. Does anyone want to smell one and see if it smells like something that you know?
SAM: Wait! Wait! I think I know what it is.
ME: What is it?
SAM: Um… Is it turnips?
ME: Oh my gosh, Sam! That is an amazing guess! How did you guess that?!
SAM: Um…um… I… I… looked straight at it and I knew.
LAUREN: Is it really turnips?
ME: It’s actually… it’s not turnips, but it looks just like the purple-tinged turnips that I’ve bought before and I don’t think we even tried those yet.
SAM: It’s turnips!
ME: No, they’re not turnips. Smell them – they smell kind of like a vegetable that you’ve tried before.
SAM: Cabbage?
ME: Nope. What do you think, Emma?
EMMA: YUMMY!
ME: It is yummy. OK – everybody try some.
SAM: What is it?
ME: It’s actually a kind of radish. I’m going to try a piece with you. This is called a Purple Tritan Radish. Remember we’ve tried Black Radishes… we’ve tried…
SAM: Black Radishes?
ME: Remember we’ve tried…
EMMA: Hmmmm.
ME: You don’t like it?
LAUREN: Mmm mmm.
ME: I don’t actually think they’re that spicy. They’re not spicy at all. I love them. Do you like them, Sam?
SAM: I like them.
EMMA: I like this part.
ME: I love them.
EMMA: I love this part of it.
ME: I could eat these all day. Couldn’t you?
ME: Lauren you don’t like yours? OK. You have to say why you don’t like it, though.
ME: And Sam, you’ve got to say why you do like it.
LAUREN: Because it has a weird vegetable taste.
ME: OK. You don’t have to love every vegetable. That’s a fine reason. Emma, why do you love it?
EMMA: [whispering] Because I love it!
ME: Well, tell me about why.
EMMA: Because I LOVE it!
ME: I know, but, is it crunchy? Do you like the taste? Do you like the smell?
SAM: I like the taste!
ME: You know what I love about it?
EMMA: It’s crunchy!
ME: It is crunchy. You know what I love most about it? That beautiful coloring inside. Look at how beautiful it is. It’s almost like a spider web of purple. See on the inside? Look at that – aren’t vegetables beautiful?
EMMA: That’s yummier!
ME: Yeah. So, what do you think? Should we get these again?
EMMA: Yes!
ME: I think so too. Let’s get them again.
Congratulations, Jess, on introducing the kids to a wide variety of foods. They have become impressively brave. I’m so happy they like (love!) radishes. I do too!!
Me too, worth the effort!
Amazing! Love how they look. I’ll have to watch for them but not sure TO will have them.
Radishes are one of those foods that I like in things but not by themselves.
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