Cincinnati Glass Radish [Cincinnati Market Radish)
The rapidity with which radishes grow, the ease with which they can be forced out of season in a green house, and the ability to cram three, maybe four crops in a calendar year made market gardeners undertake radish cultivation. In early America the roots alone were eaten. Radish seed and greens were not part of the food system, although greens were sometimes used as fodder in livestock feed schemes. All of the early American varieties were European derived, and it was not until 1850-51 that “Chinese radish” appeared in seed catalogs.
While the late 19th-century fashion for green salads prompted a boom in small round radishes, the icicle or long rooted radishes were the earliest and longest to hold the attention of cultivators. During the 19th century when the long French Breakfast radish graced the morning tables in American households (it was eaten with butter and salt), the highest price at the produce stand went to radishes as long as a carrot. The Cincinnati Glass Radish was bred during the Civil War period precisely to galvanize the vegetable market with size and crisp texture.
It was called the glass carrot because multitudes were grown in the glass garden sheds that ringed American cities providing fresh vegetables at every season. Log after it had secured its name, a legend sprang up that its crisp/brittle texture (it easily snapped) led to people calling it a glass radish. Its other name—Cincinnati Market Radish—pointed to the commercial impetus that led to its breeding. From the first it was intended to capture dollars.
Parkhurst’s Cincinnati Seed Warehouse advertised nine varieties of radish in its 1835 catalog including the ancestor of the Glass Radish, the early Short-topped Scarlet (p. 10). At the end of the 19th century, Cincinnati seedsman J. M. Mccullough said this about the vegetable: “The ‘Cincinnati Market’ is the radish so much grown by the Cincinnati market gardeners, and is the handsomest long Radish in cultivation. It is a beautiful glossy scarlet, with a very small top, and grows from 6 to 7 inches long. The skin is very thin, and the flesh crisp and brittle and of a delightful pungent quality.” Seed Catalog and Amateur’s Guide (Cincinnati, 1898), 22. The scarlet exterior is indeed striking and the pink flesh of the interior charming. The gardeners of Cincinnati had increased the length of the old short-topped scarlet and compressed its time to maturation to a scant 40 days. In 1898 one seedsman noted that the variety “was the result of 30 years’ selection.” The Market Gardener 5, 3 (March 1898), 16. Important breeders were Wilberforce Knott and Herman Harlan.
Eaten raw, some find the finer grain of the French breakfast radish superior. Eaten roasted, it is the finest of the heirloom long radishes. The Seed Savers Exchange and several heirloom seed companies offer the variety.