At Farmscape we grow a lot of diverse crops, but for the most part we keep things pretty tame. While we have a phenomenal selection of heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash, our crop guide shies away from the truly bizarre, unless of course our customers request it.

Confession time: those of us on staff at Farmscape truly relish growing strange crops. Or at least I do. To give my passion for the weird a proper outlet, I've decided to start a new feature for Farmscape blog, which I'm calling "Edible Oddities." 

This week's featured oddity is a plant variety I picked up at Seed Savers Exchange when I was back home in Iowa this summer: The Rat-tailed Radish.

These unfortunately-named plants are actually the same species as radishes grown for their roots, Raphanus Sativus. Rat-tailed radishes are grown for their 6" long edible seed pods, which can be eaten raw, pickled or in salads. Rat-tailed radish fruits have the texture of snap peas, with a satisfying crunch. They are much sweeter than radishes, but have the same distinctive spicy radish flavor as their root-crop cousins.

While round red radishes grow on short plants, usually no taller than 12", rat-tailed radishes are truly enormous in comparison, growing on shrub-like bushes. The rat-tailed radishes I grew in my community garden plot are approximately 5'-6' tall, and they're quite prolific. Over the next several weeks, I expect to harvest at least 200 fruit from 2 plants. 

The plants themselves are remarkably easy to grow--I started them from seed, and found them as easy to manage as radish roots. They produce attractive white and purple flowers, and while they take up a lot of space, they seem productive and easy to manage. The only difficulty I've encountered growing this plant has been an aphid outbreak on several flower stems, as you can see above. 

Fighting the aphids was an easy battle, but I'm left with a much more difficult challenge: what the hell can I do with 200 rat-tailed radishes?