Text and Artwork by katherine sandoz
The majority of families don’t “do” radishes but mine historically has and does. At six, I carried the nickname – my first, last and only as far as I know – “Miss Radishes” for the color of my once rosy cheeks and maybe for the fact that I hosted such a garden in the hopes that Peter Rabbit would make an appearance. In my teens, I marveled as my father packed cold butter onto the mustard and turnip relative as if an ice cream cone and ate straight from a keenly sharpened knife. In early adulthood, I superstitiously believed that if a man were to serve me a dish of radishes, I might fall terminally, inexorably, forever in love in the manner of a crazed Bronte woman. Now in the middle ages, I know the apple commonly serves as the fruit most associated with romance and passion, but I’m still thinking this delicious and mysterious beauty, the radish, may be the root of it all.
(“how radishing”, 7 1/8” square, water-based media on panel, 2012)
original Salted & Styled artwork available here
