I’m always excited when I find something I’ve never even heard of before, but I almost overlooked these radish pods at the Farmer’s Market this past weekend. I thought maybe they were chile peppers, but they didn’t look quite right so I asked about them. Radish pods are apparently what you get after the radish plant flowers, namely the seed pod of the radish, and they have the same sharp bitter taste as a radish. Only they’re small and green. The lady at the Farmer’s Market agreed that you could eat them raw, but she suggested dropping them into a hot saute pan and letting them “pop” open. I did just that, though only a few of them actually popped (one, in fact, flew out of the pan). Cooking took the edge off of the bitterness, but it also made them taste more ordinary. I prefer them raw, and I’ve been eating them like popcorn.

Update: Seen at the market this week labeled “rat-tailed radish”.

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