What a beautiful sunny day it was here in West Cork. A great day for the market and for buying some more plants for the winter plot. I have found that reddish salad leaves are less prone to slug attack, and they are hardy too, so got some of these, together with beet leaf and rocket.  Realising that it was high time that I made the cold frames ready to withstand high winds, I purchased twine and screws and made a start at securing the frames, the plastic is to follow.

I also bought some seeds of the round black radish.  I have never grown these black radishes before.  I do remember making hutsepot long time ago in Belgium, but in that stew we would have used round white radishes with a slightly sharp taste. While checking out the black radish I read that they need a well manured soil and should not go short of water (never a problem in Ireland), they are fast growing and should be used while young and tender.  I just checked Pinterest for more uses and recipes of these radishes, and there are many, they can be used raw or cooked.  One recipe talks of a creamy black radish soup with rice cream, sounds good enough to me.  It is a good vegetable to explore as it can be grown here right through the winter, and that is my main interest at the moment with my garden, how to fill it with food for the winter months. It will be another one of my experiments.