Before the frost, I took stock of my garden and started to bed down and clean up the soil. We have had an unusually warm and dry fall and yet to have a frost by the end of October. But such luck was about to run out as the forecast predicted an evening in the mid 20s, which would kill off my tender greens. Time to finish my temperate-dependent chores. My cold frame needed some repair as did the windows I built to hold in the heat. The herb garden was still filed with sage, parsley, oregano, sorrel and thyme that needed to be cut and hung up to dry. Pulling fresh and pungent herbs from the garden reminded me of summer times when everything stood tall and young with promise rather than stooped over and bug eaten.
As I was cleaning up, I noticed a large clump of leaves that had been growing in the corner of a bed that I had paid little attention to. They were unattractive and didn’t speak to me as something I should harvest or worry about. I didn’t recognize the foliage; it looked a bit like arugula but not quite. When I started to pull it, it fought back as if it had a large and stubborn dandelion-like tap root. After a two-handed concerted effort, out popped what I soon would recognize as a radish on steroids. I had planted a few radishes (French Breakfast, Easter Egg and Cherry Belle) in August though none had even begun to approach this size or make up.
When I more closely examined this behemoth, for some reason it reminded me of a heart. The final words of Poe’s Tale-Tell Heart came to mind as I pulled it from the ground (“. . .here, here! –It is the beating of his hideous heart!”). But as I turned and sniffed it, there was no mistake. It was no heart but rather a Frankenradish.
But what to do with such a huge specimen? Enshrine it for posterity? Cook it? Take small slivers off it daily to add to our salads as if it was a rare truffle? We just have no idea.
