January 2011: One Seed Chicago: Radish Love

"We've got this thing that's called Radish Love

We're growing veggies in the soil: Radish Love"

As an avid reader, I'm a big fan of the One Book, One Chicago program. This program from the Chicago Public Library "seeks to cultivate a culture of reading in our city by reinforcing the importance and fun of reading and highlighting the benefits of reading together as a community." People can participate at whatever level makes them happy, from simply reading the selected book to joining in discussion groups. At best, the shared reading experience engages readers in conversation and a sense of community, and at worst people have read a great book that they might not have read otherwise.

There is another opportunity for fun, learning, and shared experience: One Seed Chicago. One Seed Chicago is a project of NeighborSpace, the land trust that has made community gardening possible all across the city. The goal of One Seed Chicago is to engage gardeners and inspire new gardeners by providing seeds for a plant that we can all grow together, in our home gardens, on our balconies, in our community garden plots. In other words, to cultivate a culture - of gardening.

In 2010 three candidate plants--bee balm, nodding onion, and coneflower, all Illinois natives--were put to a vote. I voted for, and lobbied for, nodding onion, in honor of the connection between Chicago and the stinky oniony leek plant that gave it its name. The bee balm won despite my best efforts but that's okay; bee balm is a fantastic plant!

This year the candidates are edible plants: radish, eggplant, and Swiss chard. Eggplants and chard are undeniably beautiful plants, but I voted for radishes and I encourage you to as well!

Why radishes? Well, because they taste awesome, crispy and peppery. Pull them from the soil, rinse them, and eat them. For greens lovers, the greens are edible, too. Why else? They're so easy! Last year my husband and I built a raised garden and grew food for the first time.

It was not 100% successful (I'm looking at you, green peppers!) but the radishes made me feel like a gardening rock star and their success convinced me to keep trying with other plants. Radishes grow fast, they taste great, and they're so easy even a kid, or a distracted grad student, can grow them. Talk about a great gateway plant for a fledgling gardener. Plus, if you're like me and don't like to cook, radishes are edible right from the ground. And they're pretty!

 

Imagine a whole city growing the same plant and reading the same book. We can't agree on a baseball team or whether Rahm Emanuel is a Chicago resident, but we can unite in these two activities and improve ourselves in the process.

So go, vote RADISH now!