How To Store Radishes and Their Many Health Benefits

A garden full of flowers looks great but one of the real bonuses of gardening is the ability to grow fresh fruit and vegetables.

Growing outdoors is a remarkably rewarding way to ensure you can enjoy completely organic produce without breaking the bank.

If you don’t have enough space outside, try a grow tent and bring on some fruit, veg or herbs indoors.

We will look today at how to store radishes so you can enjoy a supply year-round.

Also, we’ll show you just some of the many ways in which radishes can help with a huge range of health issues.

How To Store Radish

Radish – Raphanus Sativus – is a root crop from the Brassicaceae family.

The vegetable tastes sweet and has a pungent fragrance. The colors vary from red and white through purple and black. There is a similar variety of shapes and sizes.

Radishes are eaten either raw or cooked. They can also be pickled.

They are a fast-growing annual with crops maturing in just 3 to 4 weeks. This can extend to 6 or 7 weeks in cooler climates.

Storing radishes is extremely simple.

Storing Radishes in The Ground

If you plan to leave the radishes for a week or so, it’s best to simply leave them as they are in the ground. They have the cool and dark conditions they need. It will also be damp rather than wet.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can extend this storage method to include a box or trench like a root cellar to mimic traditional storage methods. Pop your radishes in a wooden box, add layers of leaves and straw then cover with plenty of dirt.

Storing radishes in the ground works most effectively when the weather is cooler.

Storing Radishes in The Refrigerator

If you live somewhere warmer or you want to store your radishes for more than a week or so, your best bet is to pop them in the refrigerator.

Rinse the radishes clean and snip off the tops.

Grab a bunch of paper towels and wrap up the radishes nicely.

Place the radishes inside a plastic Ziploc bag but do not close it completely. Sealing it totally can cause too much moisture. In turn, the radishes will rot.

Storing Radishes in The Freezer

You should not store radishes in the freezer. Since their roots are filled with water, they will go rock hard much like potatoes would.

The only exception is radish greens.

Rinse the greens clean then blanch in boiling water for a few minutes. This process will put a stop to enzyme action.

Plunge them directly into cold water then pat dry.

Put them into plastic bags and freeze. Vacuum sealing will further extend their life as well as enhancing the quality.

So…

Now you’ve got a good idea about how to store radishes, how about their health benefits?

The Many Health Benefits of Radishes

Weight Loss

Radishes are extremely filling. This means that you can feel satisfied without going overboard on the calories. 100g of radishes have just 16 calories and almost no fat at all.

High in water and without much by the way of digestible carbs, they make a great option if you want to lose weight and maintain that weight loss by eating well alongside a proper exercise program.

High in roughage and fiber, they also have a low glycemic index (GI) leading to regular bowel movements and increased efficiency of the metabolism.

Diabetes

The low GI of radish means that they do not influence blood sugar levels.

Eating radish will also help sugars to be absorbed into the bloodstream. If you are a diabetic, this will stop you needing to worry about sudden spikes.

It’s certainly a good excuse to throw plenty of radish into your salads.

Cardiovascular Conditions

Radishes are rich in anthocyanins. These are a type of flavonoid. As well as giving radishes their distinctive flavor, these anthocyanins also carry a number of health benefits.

As well as having anti-inflammatory properties and helping to stave off certain cancers, anthocyanins can also lessen the chance of cardiovascular disease.

For a strong and healthy heart, get plenty of radishes on board. Every little helps when you are trying to live a healthy lifestyle.

Blood Pressure

Among a wide range of other nutrients, radish is also packed with potassium.

When potassium mixes with the vascular beds, it can assist with relaxing your blood vessels and increasing the flow of blood. You will enjoy a wider flow of blood rather than it being forced into thin channels.

If you want to regulate your blood pressure, radish is a great starting point.

Skin Disorders

Radish is full of vitamin C, vitamin B-complex, zinc and phosphorus. All of these are great for promoting clean, clear skin.

Hydration is important if you want perfect skin. Radish has a high water content so is perfect for boosting moisture levels in the skin.

Since radish has disinfectant qualities, it can also be useful for banishing dry skin with any cracking or rashes.

Raw radish is effectively used as a cleanser or face pack so as an all-rounder for skin, radish takes some beating.

Cancer

Rounding out our look at the health benefits of radish – and there are many more we do not have space to discuss today – we will look at how it can even help with cancer.

The anthocyanins, folic and vitamin C in radish combine to make it a powerful detoxifier. It’s a useful treatment for colon, stomach and oral cancers.

Radishes contain isothiocyanates. This means they can help to impede the progress of cancerous cells and even kill them off by altering the pathways.

Wrap-Up

We hope you have found this glance at how to store radishes along with an outline of their health benefits to be informative.

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Drop us a line if you have any gardening-related queries. We always do our best to respond in a timely fashion.

Now get some radishes into the ground and expand your vegetable garden with a powerhouse of health benefits.