Yummy Radish Leaves

Date: 02/14/2016

You received radishes with leaves in your box? That means they are as fresh as it gets.

This is to do with the leaves…

First! The leaves are full of nutritional value and taste. You should absolutely use them.

Second! Whenever you get any kind of root attached to the leaves – radishes, beets, celery… any crop, first remove the leaves from the root and keep them separately, dry, in a bag in the refrigerator.

If you leave the leaves attached to the root, the leaves will "suck" the root of its juice J

The root contains a lot of nutrients (to us and to them), and therefore leaves that are attached to a root want to continue to be nourished by it. The leaves will take nutrients from the root and cause it to shrivel…- This is why you typically do not find leaves connected to roots in supermarkets. When connected their shelf life is very short…

A tale of a bear and a rabbit, and tops and bottoms….:

Once upon a time there was a wealthy bear; he owned lands and was lazy. There was also a hardworking smart rabbit who was very poor (he lost all his money in a running race with a tortoise).

The poor rabbit had to find a way to support his large family so he turned to the bear, the landowner, and proposed an initiative.

"Bear," he said, "let's have a partnership. Allow me to grow on your land. I will do all the work and we will split the crops half way. What do you say?"

"Hhhaaaa," said the sleeping bear….

"Come on, I'll do all the work and we'll go half way. Right in the middle… Which part do you want? The top or the bottom?" asked the Rabbit.

"The top," Bear replied, "Just leave me alone, let me sleep…" and Bear returned to his sleep.

In the meantime, diligent Rabbit and his wife began to hoe and sow seeds. They watered and weeded and weeded and weeded and watered…. also the many baby rabbits, until at last they grew nourishing crops…

"Get up, get up Bear! We picked and it's time to split the crop! You get to the top and I get the bottoms. Open your eyes, here is all the produce!"

Rabbit had picked radishes, beets, celery root, onion, garlic… and left a pile of fresh juicy leaves at Bear’s luxurious home while Rabbit’s wife had already taken all the roots to their cave.

Bear was very disappointed – just leaves L he thought. Next season I want the bottoms. The roots. And so they agreed.

Next season, Bear again slept and the rabbit family worked, hoed, sowed, watered, weeded, weeded, weeded and weeded…. until it was harvest day, and Rabbit returned to Bear’s luxurious home and woke him. "Wake up, get up Bear," Rabbit pulled on Bear’s ears, "we have more produce!!! As you wanted, this season you get the bottoms. Here they are!"

Before Bear was a pile of roots of lettuce, kohlrabi, broccoli, leek…. Bear thought: “He tricked me again this rabbit”

Rabbit ,of course, was very happy and fed his family very well with all the flowers and leaves he had picked.

Since Bear was unhappy with the produce he received, he decided that next season he will get both the tops and the bottoms… what did smart Rabbit grow? Corn!!! From this crop, Rabbit kept the corn cobs, i.e., the middles J

In this story, the rabbit tricks the rich and sleepy bear, probably also as a result of today's consumption patterns and the fact that the bear did not think outside the box. Nowadays, many many crops reach the consumer in far from its original form because marketers want to extend the shelf life of produce. We have forgotten that we should use and how to use many parts of our crops that are also highly nutritious. About leaves, Eliran de Mayo wrote (in Hebrew).

Here are some ideas for the good radish leaves:

Do not be alarmed by the "hair" on the leaves. The radish does not want its leaves to be eaten and so they are as such. The hair disappears during the preparation of the leaves.

First, steam or sauté the leaves with garlic. Simple and delicious!

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