Radish Sandwiches & My Dad

This is one of my all time favorite sandwiches. Our radishes are producing abundantly & I fixed my first radish sandwich of the year yesterday. As I cut the radishes & buttered my bread I thought about my dad. He taught me how to make this sandwich when I was just a kid. We'd butter our bread, add the radishes, shake on some salt, & dig in.

I had some cantaloupe already cut up in the frig, so I added that to my plate. Then I grabbed the quart of pickled beets that I had chillin' in the frig. My mouth watered as I filled my plate, & then I smiled because this was a plate my dad would LOVE. I can still see his eyes light up when I'd bring him out a few quarts of pickled beets. He loved them as much as me. He loved cantaloupe & radish sandwiches were his favorite too.
So as I prepared my plate, I thought about my dad & how many things he taught me besides how to make a radish sandwich (or an onion sandwich, or a tomato sandwich...LOL). On my first day of school in 1st grade, he let me have a piece of gum. I look back at this a wonder, because we hardly ever had gum when we were little kids. Anyway, he gave me this little piece of Trident & told me that they might not allow gum at school. I told him that if they didn't, I'd go right to the trash can & spit it out. (it makes me giggle to remember this) He said, "Oh no. Don't spit it out, that's not very lady-like. Little ladies don't spit their gum out, they take their gum out of their mouths with their fingers, & then throw it away." I can see him kneeling down one one knee & telling me this. It was probably 1971, & he had a crew cut & his hair was already snow white. When on rare occasions I do chew gum (hardly ever) when I go to spit it out I always remember that & I laugh. It's just a silly thing, but it's something I remember from when I was really little, & my dad wasn't just my dad, it was when he was my daddy....& that was so long ago.

I realized yesterday as I was fixing my fun lunch & thinking of my dad, that the next day (today) is the anniversary of his going home to Jesus. He's been gone 3 years now. I hadn't planned on having a radish sandwich & having it turn into a tribute lunch for my dad, but that's exactly what happened. So I looked around for my camera, & set some things next to my plate that Dad would really get a kick out of. I put the big container of radishes near, & my quart of chilled pickled beets, & of course some salt.
If he were here, he would have loved this lunch & thoroughly enjoyed it as much as I did!

Here's to you, Dad!
I am so thankful that God blessed me with you for my DAD.
I sure miss you.
I love you.

Radishes, Green peppers, & Banana Peppers

First, LOOK at this giant radish! It's on a large dinner plate & is larger than my hand. And believe it or not, it was not hard or 'stalky'.
I actually didn't mean for them to get this big. LOL We picked them Wednesday evening & got this bag full. My husband weighed this bag with his digital fish scales, & it weighed 17 pounds! This was our 2nd planting of radishes.

I really did have a sinkfull! We also picked a few green peppers & some banana peppers. These banana peppers are the sweet kind, not hot at all, even with the seeds inside. I would LOVE to find a recipe to can them with just a little heat, like mild. If anyone has a good recipe of something like the Vlasic Pepper Rings (mild) I'd love to try it.

We've had just a few tomatoes turn red (oh! they are delicious!!!)! The onslaught of tomatoes should be in the next week or two.

The corn is nearly ready too. I'm guessin' another week.

There's the most recent garden update.

Oh, I forgot...we need to pick green beans again!

RADISHES!

WE HAVE RADISHES! WHOOOOHOOOO!
Here's the radish row. We start havesting them by thinning them out. You have to pick some a little early in order to give the other radishes more room to grow. We did this on Saturday.

Here's the first handful!


And the youngin's wagon full.

All trimmed & washed & ready to EAT. These radishes are called "French Breakfast".

This is my favorite sandwich that my dad taught me to make years & years ago.
It's easy: bread, butter, radishes, salt. YUM.

Oh it was so GOOD!
Since Saturday, we have had two salads & both had lots of our own radishes in them. And I've had more than one radish sandwich. :)

Today the radishes needed thinned/harvested again. It's a good thing, because the ones from Saturday are gone!
My dh & 5 year old ds went out between rain showers today & picked again.
The result is this 3 lb. butter bowl full!
WOOOOOOOOT!