With carrots you feel round the collar, same for beetroot and turnips, but daikon turn out to be easier to tell when they’re ready; they stand up out of the ground. I had no experience with them, and harvested some small ones a while back, but these, planted quite densely on a small terrace, left no doubt when I pulled the leaves back.
It was good timing, as I have plenty of wom bok (chinese cabbage) to pick, although it isn’t in classic heads, so I included most of the daikon in a new batch of kimchi, along with my first full sized carrots. But I couldn’t resist having half of one of the daikons sliced on bread, and the other half lightly boiled with dinner. The flavour is milder than red radish, and cooked it’s milder than a turnip. And a bonus is that the tops go to the chickens.
This batch of kimchi is back to the original, since adding rice porridge didn’t work for me – I like it watery rather than cloudy. So cabbage, daikon, carrot, spring onion, garlic, ginger and hot paprika, a splash of vinegar to protect the top, and in the jar with fingers crossed.