Radish types and tastes

Radishes are the first crop of spring, and while I've harvested 6-7 of them already (and put them on salads), this evening I thought I had enough for picking and pickling.  I've been itching to pickle radishes - I feel kind of like Bryce and Lisa on Portlandia (watch here): I'm always looking for things to pickle (OK, not bandages etc.) :-).  But I do love veggie pickles like pickled green beans and pickled carrots and even pickled green tomatoes, which I remember my grandmother making.  So I was excited that I saw so many radish tops above the ground, seemingly ready to harvest and pickle.

Well, I was wrong about how many were ready.  I was fooled.  Most were very small and not quite ready.  I ended up with 1/2 pound (weighed with tops), and even some that I harvested were smaller than was appropriate.  But I had them so I needed to decide what to do with them.  The first thing was a taste test.  I harvested early scarlet globe, pink beauty, plum purple, and french breakfast (in order in the photo):

It's the first time I've taste-tested radishes.  I think the French breakfast has the most typical radish taste - a bit of a bite.  Both pink beauty and scarlet globe are mild, with the scarlet globe a little more "radish-like" than the pink beauty.  The plum purple actually seems to have a bit of a nutty flavor!  It was so fun to taste the difference between them!

So now I have enough radishes for a radish salad, or a radish sandwich (see Deborah Madison's cookbook - Local Flavors), but what to do with the tops?  Well, they are edible so I decided to make radish pesto.  I am using the leaves and roots, with olive oil and garlic.  Put them in your food processor with as little oil as possible, just enough to make a paste.  Then pack this into ice cube trays and freeze.  I don't put in the cheese because it doesn't freeze well (you can add it later if desired) and I don't put in nuts because the pesto is more versatile without them.  I will try using this pesto for sandwich spread in the summer when I make grilled veggie and cheese sandwiches.